Dr Greg Bahnsen - Proverbs: Proverbs 14:6-8 (Wisdom, Understanding, Knowledge) (Part 56)

Continuing our exposition of the Book of Proverbs, this morning we turn for our scripture reading to Proverbs the 14th chapter, where I'd like to read verses 6 to 8, Proverbs 14, 6, 8. And we will continue through the book of Proverbs dealing with the same theme as we expect. Found this passage, Proverbs 14 at the sixth verse. Hear now, God's word to you. A scoffer. Seeketh wisdom, but findeth it not. But knowledge is easy unto him that hath understanding go from the presence of a foolish man. For thou shalt not perceive in him the lips of knowledge. The wisdom of the prudent is to understand his way. But the folly of fools is deceit. And thus far the reading of God's word. A mind is a terrible thing to waste. You probably heard that from TV commercial. And if you haven't heard it on the TV commercial, it's been used as a slogan in a number of other settings. A number of other joking settings have used it as well. But I'd like to begin very seriously with that thought this morning, that a mind indeed is a terrible thing to waste. I'm afraid that often when we look at human life and the way we should live our lives in this world and think about what we should accomplish, think about what God has made, we sometimes tend to focus on, well, the physical side of life. We tend to focus on those physical feats that people accomplish, those things that we can accomplish in this world that are visible, that have some kind of outward mark in the actual material environment round about us. But you see, God made man, not only a body, made man an ensouled body. He made man a thinking body. He made man a moral body. And we need to realize that God expects us to serve him not simply with our bodies, but also with our minds. That's what Jesus said when he told us that the first and great commandment is to love the Lord our God with all of our soul, strength and mind. We are supposed to apply our minds to the love of God. And that means the development of our thought processes, the development of our reasoning ability, the information we take in and master and apply is all supposed to be an expression of the love of God. And so a mind is a terrible thing to waste. But you know, the people who put on that television commercial don't understand the depth of the wisdom of that remark. They don't understand how to apply that remark properly. I'd like to explain why, as we begin this morning, in the first place, those who say that A mind is a terrible thing to waste, usually mean by that it's terrible if you don't go to college. Your mind is being wasted. If you have not accomplished something in an institutional, educational setting. And I want to suggest to you that that is not at all the Christian understanding of how the mind is to be properly used and not wasted. I'm not at all against going to college. I suppose my own academic degrees speak enough to that effect. If that is what your calling is, if that's the opportunity God has given you and that is the way you're going to get the training necessary to serve him properly in this world, then praise God. But you have to understand that those who are not called to go to college, those who are not called to society succeed in a schooling environment, nevertheless are called by God not to waste their minds. A mind is a terrible thing to waste, whether you're a school advocate or not. Perhaps this congregation is not the best one to preach this sermon to. Because, to be very honest with you, I don't try to flatter you when I say this, but I think it's an honest description. We perhaps have one of the most educated congregations to be found in Orange county, if not in California, maybe even the whole world. You people really like to think hard. You think about doctrinal subjects. Many of you are readers, whether you graduated from high school or not, and I commend you for that. And so perhaps this congregation has already caught on to that fact. Although I do hear from time to time remarks that are made, little things that kind of slip in, and I interpret between the sentences and between your words that somehow there are some of you who, though you do read your Bibles and you study commentaries and you look up things in Calvin's Institutes, even though you want pamphlets written on deep ethical subjects and so forth, that you still have this inferiority complex because you haven't gone to college. Perhaps you haven't graduated from high school, you haven't got a Ph.D. like the pastor. That is not the issue. The wasting of one's mind has nothing to do with the institution in which it is trained. The wasting of one's mind has everything to do with whether you submit to God and make the best use of the gifts at your disposal or not. You see, education is not the same as schooling. And beyond that, those who say a mind is a terrible thing to waste, they not only miss that point by encouraging people to go to college so their minds aren't wasted, as though your mind is wasted if you don't but they also miss, I think, a far deeper point, and that's that education is not the same as job training. And even those of you who are in school, those of you who are set to go to college, thinking about it, those of you who have been to college, maybe you've been great successes in college, many of you still haven't got that point down, that education is not job training, it's only in a pragmatic American environment that puts the highest value on commercial things, that thinks that education is job training. I'll share something with you that's a little bit of a distress to me as a teacher. I teach philosophy and I teach it to high school seniors. I don't believe that that's a step down from when I used to teach postgraduate philosophy and ethics because I find that their minds are really teachable. This is a crucial time in their lives. I find it a high calling to be able to minister to these people. But one of the toughest things in that ministry is convincing them that philosophy is important, even though you can't do anything with it. Now, of course, you can do a lot with it, but you see, that's what we tend to think. Well, what can you do with philosophy? Well, you can teach philosophy, right? That sounds like a real worthwhile thing. We teach philosophy so that we have more people who can teach philosophy to others, who can teach philosophy, who will do what. Teach others to teach philosophy. It sounds ridiculous. And in terms of the American mentality, it doesn't make any sense at all. What's the value of philosophy? And so you say, I get a real kick out of telling my students the glory of philosophy is its irrelevance, its irrelevance to American pragmatic, materialistic values. Because the glory of philosophy is it deals with what's really important, who we are and what this world is all about, and whether there's a God and how we should live our lives. It deals with the deepest issues of life which all people have to encounter, which all people have to answer whether they go to school or not and whether they take a philosophy course or not. For you see, you don't do philosophy just in philosophy classes. You do philosophy in literature classes too. And you do philosophy in psychology classes too, and you do philosophy in architectural classes too, and you do philosophy in physics classes. You can't study without doing philosophy. In fact, you can't live without doing philosophy. The difference between the philosopher and the non philosopher is not a matter that somebody wants to sit down and reflect on Deep subjects and the other doesn't. It's just that somebody's interested in doing it well because we all do philosophy. Well, you see, I say that in terms of philosophy. My remarks are broader than philosophy this morning and apply more broadly because education, whether it be in philosophy or literature, psychology, architecture, physics, whatever it may be, education is more than job training. And that's why the college degree is not the most important mark of an educated person. I know a lot of uneducated college graduates. I say that very seriously. I know a lot. I know many who have PhDs who are about as stupid as they come. That doesn't mean in terms of worldly standards, they don't have something to show. But in terms of understanding life and how to live it, knowing who they are, knowing the deep things about human existence, they know nothing. They're amateurs. They're failures in this world. As a matter of fact, I know wealthy people who are failures at life because they don't know the difference between education and job training. Our values as Christians are more than just a matter of getting ahead financially. In Proverbs 16:16, would you notice that Solomon says, better? It is, excuse me, how much better it is to get wisdom than gold. Yes, to get understanding is rather to be chosen than silver. It's quite possible for a person in or out of a school setting to have something much more important than what the best trained and most highly paid lawyer can get his hands on in this world. How much better is it to get wisdom than gold? You know, there's a sense in which we like to read a verse like that. Because for those of us who have not made it in this world, don't have a lot of money, that comforts us, right? We say, well, at least we have wisdom. But you see, the problem is that sometimes we haven't even got that. And if we were to know our own hearts, if God were to search us thoroughly this morning, I'm afraid we would have to confess, wouldn't we, that if somehow it could be laid before us on a silver platter to have either all the wealth we wanted or all the wisdom that God can give us, we would choose the wealth instead of the wisdom. And I don't mean. What would you say if you were to stand up and give a testimony this morning? I know you people well enough that you know the right thing to say. I'm afraid you don't know the right thing to choose. Because we still think about material values. We still think about getting ahead in worldly terms instead of thinking about getting ahead with God. Knowledgeable lips, according to Proverbs, are themselves a precious jewel. Proverbs 20, verse 15. There is gold in abundance of rubies, but the lips of knowledge are a precious jewel. There are people who are adorned with rare and costly stones. Go out to the Performing Arts center some Saturday night, you'll see some people who really know how to get decked out. And you know, I'm not some kind of Marxist fool. I'm not against wealth. I'm not against having nice things. If you're able to afford that and also take care of the poor and tithe and do all the things, you should be with your money, that's fine. But what Proverbs tells us is that while some people are adorned with costly stones, other people are admired for catching not our eye, but catching our ear. That's a far greater accomplishment to have somebody say, you know, I really think highly of her. I really think highly of him. Because when you listen to them, you see how wise they are. You see how much understanding they have. You see how they kind of got it all together. I think probably there's nothing more pathetic than to see somebody who is nicely dressed and thoroughly uneducated in the things of the Lord. According to the book of Proverbs, our mental and our spiritual state is reflected in our speech as well. Proverbs 15:2. The tongue of the wise uttereth knowledge aright, but the mouth of fools poureth out folly. You can be very sure that the way you speak is a total revelation of what's inside you. Those who are wise speak in such a way that knowledge is used properly, and people see that and they hear it and they respect it. But fools, you know, they talk. Of course, the problem with a fool is he doesn't know when to stop either. A fool betrays his foolishness, and then what he does is he tries to cover it up, and he talks some more, which means you have more foolishness covering the original foolishness. And then he feels that he's got to dig even deeper, and he tries to cover that foolishness up. And fools just go on and on. They flow forth, as the Hebrew says, with foolishness. A mind is a terrible thing to waste. And what I want to talk to you about this morning, then, is how not to waste your mind, but to gain rather knowledge, wisdom, and understanding in the way the book of Proverbs would encourage us to receive them. I will not take the time to distinguish sharply between knowledge and wisdom and understanding. Because, you see, as you study The Book of Proverbs. God doesn't sharply distinguish between those things. An unwise person, a fool, doesn't have knowledge. A man who doesn't have knowledge is not a man of understanding. These things just naturally flow into each other. There's an easy transition from one to the other. And in fact, in our Scripture reading this morning, I think you notice that just look at verse six. A scoffer seeks what? Wisdom and finds it not, but knowledge. Instead of wisdom. You see how knowledge now comes to take its place. Knowledge is easy unto him, the man who has understanding. So understanding and knowledge and wisdom just kind of flow together. They're almost interchangeable. In verse 7, go from the presence of a foolish man. You will not find in him the lips of knowledge. Verse 8, the wisdom of the prudent is to what, understand his way. So knowledge, wisdom, and understanding are going to be treated as kind of a package deal this morning. And what I want to speak to you about are three things. First, the value of wisdom, knowledge, and understanding. Secondly, the difficulty getting those things. And then finally, the prerequisites of doing so. First of all, the value, wisdom. The Bible would teach us that our attitude toward having understanding, our attitude toward the gaining of knowledge itself affects the quality of our life. In the 16th chapter of Proverbs, verse 22, we read, Understanding is a wellspring of life unto him that hath it. But the correction of fools is their folly. Understanding is a wellspring of life unto him who has it. You know, that sounds like good poetry. It's a nice metaphor, even in the English language, but in Hebrew, it's beautiful. If you remember the setting in which this is uttered often in the Book of Proverbs, the image of a springing water fountain, or a water of life, flowing water, a brook of water, is used for refreshment and that which sustains our lives. Because, you see, over in Palestine, one's tongue swells up with the heat, and one walks for miles, longing to find some refreshment that will save his life. It will bring refreshment and cooling to his body. The book of Proverbs tells us, understanding is what gives that. Understanding is a wellspring of life unto him that has it. But the correction of fools is their folly. Good sense will bring you refreshment. Your life will really be sparkling, will really be clean, will really be cooled down and refreshed. The quality of your life is going to be enhanced. If you're a man of understanding. On the other hand, the fool brings chastisement upon himself. And the interesting thing is now the book of Proverbs is telling us that it's not just the consequences of foolishness that chastise the fool. It's not just that the fool gets into hot water and all these terrible things happen. But the very foolishness of the fool is the correction of his life. He puts himself into these bad times because the quality of a fool's life is nothing to be eager for. The quality of a fool's life should turn him away from it. But you see, that's just the mark of his foolishness that he can't. He lives in it. That's his environment, that's his atmosphere, that's what he breathes. He's just used to being a fool and suffering for it. But refreshment and life are for those of good sense. Indeed, in Proverbs 24:13, 14, wisdom, knowledge and understanding are said to be as pleasant as honey. Let's see if you understand this proverb. Proverbs 24:13. My son, eat honey, for it is good. And the droppings of the honeycomb, which are sweet, sweet to your taste. So shall you seek wisdom for your soul. If you have found it, then there shall be a reward, and your hope shall not be cut off. The proverb begins by saying, my son, seek honey, eat honey. Why? Because it's good and because it's sweet to your taste. I'm sorry, you ladies who are trying to do a good job of keeping our calories down and getting us onto health foods, you have to admit that there's something to this, that we eat things that we enjoy eating. So the book of Proverbs says, go ahead and eat honey. It's good for you, tastes good, you'll enjoy it. It's easy to give that type of tougher to say, eat your spinach. Much tougher to eat. You know, those vegetables, whatever they may be, that you don't like. But it's easy to tell people to eat honey. You see, that's what sets you up to understand the next part of the proverb, though, if you understand that, and you need some of the humor that is between the lines intended, you give a command to eat honey because it's sweet to the taste. Well, the next proverb, the next part of the Proverb says, so shalt thou seek wisdom in the same way as you would seek honey. Why? Because it tastes good, because it's sweet. So you should seek wisdom because it is good, because it brings sweetness to your life. And if you have found it, there's great reward and your hope will not be cut off. So the Book of Proverbs counsels us on the value of wisdom. It is a wellspring of life if you have good sense. It is like honey to the taste if you have wisdom and knowledge and understanding. But secondly, the book of Proverbs says it's very difficult to get it. Very difficult indeed. Look at Proverbs 14:6, first verse of our Bible reading this morning. It says, a scoffer seeks wisdom but finds it not, for knowledge is easy unto him that hath understanding. Wisdom can elude very intelligent people indeed, wisdom can elude people who make a real effort to gain it. And at this point I will take advantage of my educational background and just tell you that for all of the study I've done in philosophy, I still can't get rid of the past in life. For all of my study in philosophy, I have been appalled at how those outside of the Christian world and life view strive in vain and accomplish so little intellectually in terms of understanding the world. Indeed, we come to the 20th century and we see not only in the theater, the absurd as a cultural expression of, but in the school known as existentialism, even a tendency discussed the value of one final experience of suicide, even death becomes, you see, something of an allurement to 20th century philosophers because they just haven't got their heads screwed on right. I mean, they don't understand life, they don't understand themselves, they don't understand the world, they don't understand how to live. People who set out to find wisdom, you know, jokes are told about those who seek all through the world to find the meaning of life, right? To gain wisdom. I remember David Letterman. It always is funnier when he says it. But David Letterman one night said that he had finally found the meaning of life. And he's real serious about it. We're all waiting. What's the meaning of life? He says it's golf. Golf is the meaning of life. But you see, there's something dreadful about that, that joke because you see, the reason he can make fun of those who seek the meaning of life, those who go all through the world, you know, and would seek the gurus of the east and the most intelligent professors of the West. The funny thing about them is they don't ever come up with anything. And so that encourages our American materialized values to say, why bother to think about all these deep things? No one's getting any answers for it. Book of Proverbs would have told us as much. A scoffer seeks wisdom, but he can't find it. He's going to look all through the world for wisdom. And if you don't know what you're looking for, if you don't already have the understanding God gives, you're not going to find it. And so, believe me, my friends, brilliant thinkers can still be fools. And the reason they are fools is because they refuse to accept their place before God. You don't need a college degree to understand that the most foolish person imaginable is the person who doesn't know who he is and where he stands. And our colleges and our universities are full of people who don't know where they stand before God, and they are fools for it. Proverbs 1:7. Perhaps the very theme of the whole book of Proverbs says the fear of Jehovah is the beginning of knowledge. But fools despise wisdom and instruction, the beginning of knowledge. How much have you absorbed that perspective? How much do you really understand and apply the fact that knowledge begins with the fear of the Lord? It doesn't end with the fear of the Lord. There are a lot of people who think, you go out there, you get smart, you learn the ways of the world, you learn how to think logically, you learn how to do research, write good papers, put together brilliant arguments, and then at the end of the line, when you've done all your work, then maybe we come to the point where we say, well, there must be a God then. And so we fall down, we worship him, as though God is somehow flattered by that, that you got by so well up to the last point in your argument that finally said, oh, yes, well, there must be a God, now I'll worship Him. Proverbs says the beginning point of knowledge, where you start the head, the very entrance way to knowledge, is the fear of the Lord. And so what do you think of those who are not Christians who try to do academic work? They're fools. They hate knowledge. They despise wisdom and instruction because they don't know their place. Wisdom eludes intelligent people. Proverbs 14:6 says, Knowledge is easy unto him that hath understanding. I guess this is kind of a turn of the tables on the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. What this says is, the intelligent get more intelligent, those with understanding get deeper understanding, and those with deeper understanding get even more deep understanding. And on and on it goes. If you understand things properly, you'll find further knowledge in easy matter. The reason for that is those who understand things properly have begun with the fear of The Lord. What does God do for those who humble themselves before him? What does God do for those who bow the mind and the heart to the one who made heaven and earth and who redeemed their lives from destruction, the one who will be their final judge? What does God do for them? Well, the Bible tells us he gives us new life. And with new life he gives us a new mentality and a new understanding of things. He gives us enlightenment, so that no longer do we walk in darkness and stumble along in our sin. But now the light is shining. Now we can see things properly. Best of all, we can understand His Word, which was a closed book to us spiritually before being born again. And as John tells us in First John 2:27, you have no need that any man teach you, for you have the anointing of God. And his anointing, you see, teaches us everything we need to know. Now, John's not despising the place of teachers in the church. He's not overlooking the fact that you can have a pastor or an elder or a good Christian friend who can help you along. But what he's saying is you don't need any individual ultimately, because what you have is the most important resource of all. You have the Holy Spirit living within you. You have the anointing of God within you. And so that's why, you see, intelligent people can be so stupid, can be so, so foolish. And yet people who have no academic degrees to show in terms of worldly attainment nevertheless can be the most brilliant wise people around because they have the Holy Spirit working within them. Proverbs tells us wisdom is not lightly picked up. Look at Proverbs 23. There are two verses there that teaches this. Proverbs 23, first of all, verse 12, apply thy heart to unto correction and thine ears to the words of knowledge. You see, wisdom calls for personal application. It calls for effort. Apply your heart unto correction. Apply your ears to the words of knowledge. You can't just pick it up easily. Isn't that one of our problems? I've heard numbers of you in this congregation talk about how you want to understand the Bible better, how you want to understand ethics or theology better. But then, you see, you get discouraged and you stop. Because it takes a little bit of effort. First place, it takes the effort to discipline yourself, to have time to do some study. And we're not good at disciplining ourselves, are we? Unless, of course, it's something we really want to do if we want to get up to Mammoth this weekend and ski we can work out all the most complicated details and get there and back, but to find 10 extra minutes to read a little bit of theology is just like overwhelming to us. Doesn't that say something? That says something to me, about me and about you as well. Wisdom calls for application. You must apply your heart. Not only must you discipline yourself to have time to study, but you've got to pay attention to your studies. And it discourages us when we find out some things are not as easy as other things. And what we do is we get to the tough things we say. We'll leave that for the pastor to figure out. We'll let the elders read about that. Maybe at presbytery they'll be able to settle those kind of issues. But not me. That isn't true. You don't have any need that a man teach you. You've got the Holy Spirit within you, and if you apply your heart and the fear of the Lord to your studies, you're going to gain something from it. There's another verse in this chapter that tells us wisdom cannot be lightly picked up, and that's verse 23. Buy the truth and sell it not. Yes, wisdom and instruction and understanding. See how those all run together again. Buy the truth, don't sell it. Wisdom, instruction and understanding. To become a wise person calls for discernment, and it calls for tenacity. Buy it, don't sell it. Search it out. Be discerning. Don't buy just anything. Buy the truth and buy it up and hold on to it. It's an investment. Don't give it up. Don't worry about the fluctuations in the mental stock market. Hold on to the truth. Don't worry about every, you know, wind of opinion that comes along. Buy the truth. Hold on tight. And so if you today are feeling like maybe you've been wasting your mind, you haven't been applying yourself to wisdom, knowledge and understanding. I want to encourage you to not be discouraged when it becomes difficult. Discipline, tenacity and discernment are called for. The Bible also tells us in Proverbs 17:24, that those with understanding can't miss wisdom and fools can't find it. Those with understanding can't miss it. Fools can't find it. Proverbs 17:24, where we read, wisdom is before the face of him that hath understanding. But the eyes of the fool are in the ends of the earth. I love the last part of that verse. I've probably already shared that with you. That's what I usually quote to my students when I find them daydreaming. You know, our eyes are just glazed over and say the Bible tells us the eyes of a fool are in the ends of the earth. You know, it's just staring out into space. That makes a real point though, because what we learn is that wisdom is straight in front of those with understanding. And the reason it's straight in front of them is because they set their faces toward wisdom. They look for wisdom and the Bible says they can't miss it. Fools, on the other hand, while we are intently staring at wisdom and seeking it, fools are just looking everywhere, acting like fools. They don't have the proper concentration, they don't have the proper orientation, they don't even know where to look. So would you please stop respecting those with worldly credentials of learning who don't know God, who don't fear the Lord, who don't humble themselves before him and have the anointing of the Holy Spirit. There are people that are walking around with a glazed look in their eyes. Their eyes in the end of the earth, staring out into space. They have no idea what life is about. They don't know how to communicate knowledge to you, to tell you how to live the value of wisdom, the difficulty of wisdom. But then Proverbs also gives us the prerequisites of wisdom. You want to change, you want to be different, you want to get hold of this sweet tasting honey that the Bible sets before us. Wisdom, knowledge and understanding. And here's what you must do. First of all, wise people get knowledge, the Bible says, because they realize their need to seek it. Proverbs 18:15. The heart of the prudent gets knowledge and the ear of the wise seeks knowledge. There's a real paradox about this. What we find out is that those who know the most know how much they need to learn. The heart of the prudent gets knowledge. And here's why. Because the ear of the wise seeks it. A person who has knowledge knows the needs, the seek knowledge. You see, Solomon understood years before Socrates ever got around to it that the wisest person is the person who knows how foolish he is. And so he seeks after it. Paul tells us the same thing in the book of First Corinthians 8:1:2. Here's the way the apostle Paul states it. Now, concerning things sacrificed to idols, we know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge puffs up, but love edifies. If any man thinks that he knoweth anything, he knoweth not yet as he ought to know. See, knowledge puffs up and Paul says, if any man Thinks he's really got it wired. If any man really thinks he's got this down, he's so smart he doesn't really understand yet the way he needs to know, because true knowledge is entailed in humility. Knowledge does not puff up if it's godly knowledge, but of course, the knowledge that this world calls knowledge, the knowledge that passes for the real thing when it's nothing but artificiality, the fake product that puffs up. And so that's why Paul says if any man thinks he knows them, he doesn't yet know the way he should know. Those with true knowledge understand their need to know more, to learn more. They have true humility. And as Proverbs 18:15 says, the ear of the wise seeks knowledge. One needs a trained ear that sorts out well founded knowledge from mere opinion and sorts it out from fallacious thinking, and sorts it out from the folly that's available all around us. Us. Proverbs 15:14. The heart of him that hath understanding seeks knowledge, but the mouth of fools feeds on folly. Understanding hearts seek after knowledge. I want you to contrast the two verbs that are used in this proverb if you're going to get the point. The heart of him that hath knowledge seeks knowledge. You see, there's something purposeful about this. There's something self conscious about this. There's something disciplined and well trained about it. One is seeking it out. But by contrast, the mouth of fools feeds on folly, where the Hebrew word feeds is the same that's used for cattle as they graze. Ever watch cattle graze? It's not systematic. It's not a matter of seeking anything out. It's not organized, well planned and disciplined. Just a matter of here's a little clump of grass here, and without even looking around, there's another little clump here and a little clump there. Cattle are amazing for their arbitrariness. They don't care, just wander here and there. And that's what fools do. They feed on their folly like that. A little tuft of folly here and a little tuft of folly there. And who knows where they're going, if there's any plan or direction to this. But on the other hand, the heart of him that hath understanding seeks knowledge. He disciplines himself. Those lacking wisdom will always be satisfied with folly. Proverbs 15:21. Folly is joy to him that is void of wisdom. But a man of understanding makes straight his going. You see, not only do fools like cattle graze here and there, a little bit of folly here A little bit of folly there. They're just pleased as punch with it too. They're satisfied. They think, that's just super. A little bit of folly here, a little bit of folly there. Foolish people just love their folly. But a man of understanding sets his life in order. Man of understanding disciplines his life and lives morally before God, sets his face toward wisdom, and with intelligence and discernment and self consciousness seeks it out. And so here's one piece of advice to you. Don't hang around foolish people. Proverbs 14:7. Go from the presence of a foolish man, for you will not perceive in him the lips of knowledge. You're not going to find a word of sense in him. To put it in the English colloquialism, not a word of sense. The lips of knowledge can't be found in a fool. So don't hang around him, go from him. And you say, well, now, wait a minute. You see, the mind is just kind of lives in its own little universe. And it's not affected by the social setting. Oh yes it is the way you think and what you think about and how you think about it. And the mental habits you develop are very much affected by those you hang around with. So don't hang around with fools. Of course, that has an obvious application, doesn't it, to sending our children to those who are fools to become taught. Don't send your children to fools to teach them, because they don't have anything to teach. I don't care how much they know about astrophysics. They haven't got anything to teach if they're fools. But it's not just in terms of who educates our kids. Who do you hang around with? Go from the presence of fools. Hang around with people that are born again, that have the Holy Spirit, that have the fear of the Lord in their hearts, that are gaining wisdom day by day and are being progressively sanctified. And then you'll learn something about being wise. Realize that true understanding and knowledge, true wisdom calls for moral reflection and it calls for mental honesty. Proverbs 14:8. The wisdom of the prudent is to understand his way, where the word way here refers to the conduct of your life, your behavior. The wisdom of the prudent is to understand ethics, to understand conduct. But the the folly of fools is deceit. In our day and age, shrewdness, I think, has been reduced to a kind of business, good sense and consequences. The shrewd person is a person who can see the bottom line and see the net value of a project who can put all together the pluses and the minuses and decide what is going to be the most profitable project or way of proceeding in this world. But that's not shrewdness in the biblical sense. Shrewdness is being able to understand the morals of the situation. Being able to understand what's right and wrong, understanding human conduct. By contrast, fools, we learn, sidestep the truth. My guess is you probably know someone like that. Maybe you know a number of people like that. And if you look in the mirror, you probably know someone really well like that. Because you see, what fools like to do is to reach their conclusion, regardless of how good their arguments are. So a fool decides he wants to commit adultery. And you know what? You can't reason a man out of adultery. And it's not just hormones. There are people whose hormones are perfectly alright. People who are happily married who still go out and commit adultery because of the forbidden fruit syndrome. There's something about fools who just want to do what is wrong because it entices them to do what is wrong. Now what do you make of that? A man with a good education and a good job and a happy family life, and even a wife who's satisfying him in bed, who commits adultery. I mean, can we avoid saying what the Bible says about such a person? He is a fool. He is a fool because he doesn't discipline his life. He doesn't understand true integrity. He sidesteps the truth because what he wants is his conclusion, no matter what the argument may be. And it's not just matters of sexual immorality we're talking about here. We can talk about mental immorality too. Intellectual immorality, of which the vast majority of those who teach in our colleges and universities are guilty. They haven't got the right conclusions, they haven't got the right starting point. They haven't got the right standards. And yet they mock those who do. They sidestep the truth. They'll never get wisdom, and they'll never be true. Truly knowledgeable people because of that foolishness. Training and wisdom we should learn then is entirely a matter of the fear of the Lord. Proverbs 15:33. The fear of Jehovah is the instruction of wisdom. And before honor goes humility. In Proverbs 17 we saw that the fear of the Lord was the gateway to knowledge. This verse makes it much more. This verse says the whole pathway of knowledge is the fear of the Lord. Not only can you not enter the path without the fear of the Lord, but you can't make any progress, you won't go anywhere in terms of knowledge, wisdom and understanding without the fear of the Lord. And the problem with those who will not submit to that prerequisite is stated in the next part of the verse. But he that hearkeneth to excuse me, and before honor goes humility. Those who lack genuine humility cannot fear the Lord, and they can never be knowledgeable people. So the mind is a terrible thing to waste, isn't it? God made you to use that mind, to put it to good use, whether you go to school with it or not. The point is, you all should be intelligent people, well read people, well thought out people. Reflective, meditative, self conscious, cogent people who don't reason fallaciously or selfishly or immorally. All of you need to use your minds to God's glory. That begins and continues with the fear of the Lord in an attitude of true humility rather than arrogance or self reliance. One more passage I want to look at before we conclude this morning. And it teaches us that wisdom, knowledge and understanding depend then on the word of God, not upon academic accomplishments, but the word of God. Proverbs 22:17, 21 Incline thine ear and hear the words of the wise, and apply thy heart unto my knowledge, for it is a pleasant thing if thou keep them within thee. If they be established together upon thy lips that thy trust may be in Jehovah. I have made them known to thee this day. Even to thee. Have not I written unto thee 30 sayings of counsels and knowledge to make thee know the certainty of the words of truth, that thou mayest carry back words of truth to them that send thee. We have the age old philosophical problem of skepticism. How can we know anything for sure? Can we be certain of anything? The skeptic says no, you can't know anything. And of course the wisdom of the skeptic is that he knows that you can't know anything. He's got it all figured out that knowledge is impossible. Even the knowledge that one doesn't know anything, I guess, is impossible. But anyway. Skepticism challenges every attempt of people to put together the meaning of life, to understand even the most mundane affairs. How life work in this world or how roses grow. The skeptic says we don't really know anything for sure. And how do people try to mount a defense against skepticism? It's amazing. You look at the history of philosophy, which I would like to go into three or four hours of this morning, but I'm not going to do that to you. Don't get up and leave. If I could summarize for you. Philosophers tend to do one of two or three things. What they say is, well, there are certain things that you just can't deny because there's is present to you all the time, like our senses. You just can't deny that. Right now I am having a sensation of seeing people sitting in seats. There's just something unassailable about that. And developing out of that is what we call an empirical mindset that says we can overcome skeptics by always checking our facts, our sensations and our observations, being really scientific about things. Skeptic, however, easily overcomes that. Skeptic says, well, how can you be sure of any of your observations? Yes, one observation checks another observation. But what I want to know is why is observation ever trusted? Because our senses do deceive us. We have problems with illusion and variation in our perceptions and so forth. So how do you know that you can trust any of your sensations, even if you get someone to check them? Because he's checking his observations, which are questionable, against your observations which are questionable. And that's kind of like making sure that the New York Times has told the truth by getting another copy of the same paper and saying, well, it says it here too. And so one attempt to overcome skepticism is to use kind of, well, I see it, it must be true, the empirical mindset. Another attempt to overcome skepticism tries to overcome it by being rationalistic and consistent, being more coherent than those who are empirical. But the problem, of course, is the skeptic can point out that you can create all sorts of coherent universes in your imagination. People who write novels, at least good ones, do that all the time. But there's nothing true about the novel. It doesn't fit into anything. It's not at all a matter of what actually has happened in this world. So coherence is no guarantee of truth either. And so you have all these attempts to find some kind of a foundation, some unassailable starting point, either in our sensations or in our reasoning ability to overcome skepticism. And they never work. Turn to the book of Proverbs. The book of Proverbs says in verse 21 that God has revealed these things to make thee know the certainty of the words of truth. You want to overcome the skeptic? Then begin with the fear of the Lord. Begin with what the Scriptures teach you and the reason why that overcomes the skeptic. And you know, Paul overcomes the skeptic and the fool when he says, where is the wise? Where is the Scribe, where is the debater of this age? Hasn't God made foolish the wisdom of this world? What Paul points out is if you begin with God's point of view, if you begin with the fear of the Lord, when you begin with the truth of Scripture, that provides what we'll call the preconditions of knowing anything, of even being able to reason. You see, the fool can't even speak, can't even make sense of his challenges to people's claims to knowledge. If he doesn't have some way to justify knowledge, if he doesn't have some way to justify speech, if he doesn't have some way to justify at least the intelligence of what he is saying. The Book of Proverbs says we know the certainty of the words of truth because we have absorbed the Word of God. And so in the end, it's our response to Scripture, it's our response to God's Word that determines whether we'll gain knowledge, whether we'll remain fools. And so I'm going to leave you with just four questions real briefly this morning from this passage. In the first place, do you read the Word of God with Alert concentration? Verse 17. Incline thine ear, hear the words of the wise and apply thy heart unto my knowledge. Are you applying your heart unto my knowledge? Jesus said, you shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free. But he said that following another well known statement of his, that if you abide in my word, then are you my disciples indeed? Are we living in the Word of God? Are we applying our hearts to the Word of God? Are we inclining our ears to the Word of God? Are we concentrating, Are we alert about the Word of God? Secondly, do you make a point of retaining what you find in the Bible so that it becomes reflected even in your speech patterns? Verse 18. For it is a pleasant thing if thou keep them within thee, yet they be established upon thy lips. Do you find that the things that you read and you study of a theological, spiritual nature stay with you? Do you retain them? And are they so internalized, so digested, so much a part of you, that they're established upon your lips? So the very way you speak, the way you deal with people, what you say and the testimony of your mouth reflects the Word of God within? Thirdly, do you receive God's Word with its own divine intention to do three things. First, to deepen your trust in God. Verse 19. That thy trust may be in Jehovah, I have made them known to thee this day. Do you receive God's Word so that you may learn to trust him all the more, have greater faith in him. Do you receive them to guide your decisions? Verse 20. Have not I written unto thee thirty sayings of counsels and knowledge? Do we go to the Bible seriously to have our lives changed and reformed, to help us make decisions that count in this world? In verse 21, do you go to the Bible to strengthen your grasp upon the truth, to make thee know the certainty of the words of truth? Jesus said, the wise man builds his house upon the rock, and the fool builds his house upon the sand. And when the storms of life arise, the foolish man's house has this great destruction, great is the fall of it. Jesus says, but the man with his house founded upon the rock stands firm. Jesus says, my words are rock to you. So when you study the Bible, do you see that this is a matter of life and death, of getting your house set upon the rock so that against all the waves and the storms and the turmoil and tribulation of life you will stand firm, the certainty of the words of truth, regardless of who attacks it or whatever the clever argument may be? So we need to read the Word of God with alert concentration. We must read it to retain what we have found and have it established upon our lips. We must read it to deepen our trust in God, guide our decisions and found us upon the rock of truth. And then finally, do you look upon yourself as an ambassador of God's truth to those who are in need of it at the end of verse 21, that thou mayest carry back words of truth to them that send thee? There are a lot of people out there in this world, as we've already said many times this morning, who are fools. A lot of people in this world who don't have a knowledge of God, a lot of people who don't think clearly, don't think, think straight, don't understand human life and its meaning. And so do you study the Word of God so that you will be a more faithful ambassador to carry back the words of truth to them? You see, the mind is a terrible, terrible thing to waste. Let's pray. Lord, we pray this morning that you would waken us to our foolishness and our laziness and our deplorable wasting of that asset that is all of ours. A mind that has been made to think your thoughts after you and to glorify you. Indeed, to demonstrate love for you in the way that we use it. We do ask that you would help us to make all of our thoughts captive to the obedience of Christ this morning that you would teach us to discipline our minds, to seek wisdom, and to make it more valuable to us than all the commercial appeasements of life about us. To use our minds totally apart from whether we are in an institutional school setting or not. To use our minds to glorify you, to grow in our thinking, to become wiser all the time because of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit enlightening us to the truth of the Scriptures. Lord, teach us to be humble, to fear you, to truly reverence you and stand in awe before you, to bow before your word and to honor your Son, to receive your spirit and his guidance. We ask you, as we turn to your word, that you would give us more alert minds that are truly inclined to hear what you have to say. Say to live within your word and therefore be set free. We pray that you'd give us receptive minds that would remember the things that we have learned and have that remembrance come to expression in the way we talk. Give us minds that want to be guided by your Word, and give us minds, having been guided, that can now guide others by being faithful ambassadors of the truth that you've entrusted to us. We recognize that we're nothing but earthen vessels, Lord, and the treasures of the gospel have been given to us. We recognize that the value is in the truth that you have bestowed and not in the vessel that carries it. We do pray we'd be more faithful ambassadors of that truth, that not only would we grow in knowledge and wisdom and understanding, but we would lead others to do the same, and all to the glory of our Savior Jesus Christ, whose word this is and in whose name we pray. Amen.