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A Wise Man Will Hear (Proverbs 1:2-8) · (Un) Common thoughts of Christ

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Today we begin a study in the book of Proverbs, a book that is intensely practical, searching, and needed.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_00: Proverbs does not merely give clever sayings for better living.
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  SPEAKER_00: It brings before us the moral wisdom of God for the pathway of life.
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  SPEAKER_00: It speaks especially to the young, but not only to the young.
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  SPEAKER_00: It speaks to every soul that must walk through a world full of choices, voices, temptations, and consequences.
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_00: And before Proverbs gives us warnings, it gives us the purpose of the book.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: So we will begin by reading Proverbs chapter one, verses two through seven, to know wisdom and instruction, to perceive the words of understanding, to receive the instruction of wisdom, justice and judgment and equity, to give subtlety to the simple, to the young man, knowledge and discretion.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_00: A wise man will hear and will increase learning, and a man of understanding shall attain unto wise counsels, to understand a proverb and the interpretation, the words of the wise and their dark sayings.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_00: The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_00: That last verse is the key that unlocks the whole book.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_00: The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.
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  SPEAKER_00: Not the fear of man, not the fear of failure, not the fear of public opinion, not even the fear of consequences first, but the fear of the Lord.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_00: That means a reverent recognition of God, his authority, his holiness, his word, his right to command, and my place as a creature before him.
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  SPEAKER_00: Proverbs begins here because there can be no true wisdom where God is left out.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_00: A person may be educated, capable, successful, and admired, and still be a fool in the moral sense if God has no rightful place in the heart and conscience.
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  SPEAKER_00: The opening verses give us several words that describe the kind of character God's wisdom produces.
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  SPEAKER_00: There is wisdom, not merely knowing facts, but the skill to use knowledge rightly.
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  SPEAKER_00: There is instruction, teaching that may include discipline.
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  SPEAKER_00: Wisdom is not always learned comfortably.
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  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes God teaches through correction, restraint, and chastening.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_00: There is understanding, the ability to discern, to learn from what is before us, and even to gain wisdom from the sad outcomes of others.
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  SPEAKER_00: There is justice, judgment and equity, right behavior, sound decisions, moral uprightness.
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  SPEAKER_00: There is knowledge and discretion, sound information joined with thoughtfulness.
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  SPEAKER_00: That is a very full picture.
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  SPEAKER_00: Proverbs is not aiming merely to make a person clever, it is aiming at a formed character, a soul trained by the Word of God to walk wisely in a dangerous world.
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  SPEAKER_00: And then verse five gives a mark of the truly wise person.
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  SPEAKER_00: A wise man will hear and will increase learning.
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  SPEAKER_00: That is simple, but searching.
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  SPEAKER_00: A wise man listens.
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  SPEAKER_00: The fool is already full, he cannot be taught.
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  SPEAKER_00: He resents correction, he assumes that his own judgment is enough.
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  SPEAKER_00: But the wise man has a teachable spirit.
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  SPEAKER_00: He hears, he increases learning.
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  SPEAKER_00: He is not ashamed to receive counsel.
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  SPEAKER_00: This is one of the great tests of wisdom.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_00: Can I still be instructed?
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_00: Can the word of God still reach me?
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_00: Can correction still touch my conscience?
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  SPEAKER_00: Can I still say I was wrong?
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_00: Can I still bow when God speaks?
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_00: Because Proverbs will show us that wisdom is not merely information, it is submission to divine truth.
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  SPEAKER_00: Then, beginning in verse twenty, wisdom is pictured as a person crying out in the streets.
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  SPEAKER_00: Wisdom crieth without.
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  SPEAKER_00: She uttereth her voice in the streets.
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  SPEAKER_00: This is striking.
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  SPEAKER_00: Wisdom is not hidden away where no one can find her.
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  SPEAKER_00: She is not whispering in some secret corner.
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  SPEAKER_00: She cries openly in the streets, in the chief place of concourse, in the openings of the gates, in the city.
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  SPEAKER_00: In other words, God's wisdom comes where people actually live.
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  SPEAKER_00: It meets us in daily decisions.
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  SPEAKER_00: It speaks in family life, business life, public life, private life.
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  SPEAKER_00: It speaks when we are young and forming habits, it speaks when we are older and tempted to excuse ourselves.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_00: It speaks when we are simple, when we are careless, when we are proud, when we are delaying obedience.
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  SPEAKER_00: And wisdom asks a piercing question in verse twenty two How long ye simple ones will ye love simplicity?
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  SPEAKER_00: And the scorners delight in their scorning, and fools hate knowledge?
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  SPEAKER_00: Notice the words How long?
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  SPEAKER_00: That is not only a question of ignorance, it is a question of delay.
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  SPEAKER_00: How long will you stay where you are?
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  SPEAKER_00: How long will you hear truth and not obey it?
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_00: How long will you know the path is wrong and still continue in it?
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_00: How long will you mistake patience for permission?
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  SPEAKER_00: This is one of the great dangers in the soul, not always open rebellion, but procrastination.
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  SPEAKER_00: Wisdom calls, and the person says, Later.
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  SPEAKER_00: God's word speaks, and the conscience says, not now.
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  SPEAKER_00: The truth is acknowledged, but obedience is postponed, and delay hardens.
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  SPEAKER_00: Then wisdom gives a gracious call in verse 23.
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  SPEAKER_00: Turn you at my reproof.
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  SPEAKER_00: Behold, I will pour out my spirit unto you.
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  SPEAKER_00: I will make known my words unto you.
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  SPEAKER_00: There is both correction and promise here.
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  SPEAKER_00: Turn you at my reproof.
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  SPEAKER_00: That means wisdom does not flatter us.
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  SPEAKER_00: God's truth often comes as reproof before it comes as comfort.
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  SPEAKER_00: It shows us where we are wrong.
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  SPEAKER_00: It exposes the path we are on.
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  SPEAKER_00: It calls us to turn.
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  SPEAKER_00: But then comes the promise.
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  SPEAKER_00: I will pour out my spirit unto you.
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  SPEAKER_00: I will make known my words unto you.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_00: God does not reprove merely to shame, he reproves to recover.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_00: He speaks to turn the soul from folly and bring it into light.
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  SPEAKER_00: But the chapter also contains a solemn warning.
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  SPEAKER_00: Wisdom can be refused, her voice can be ignored, her counsel can be set aside.
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  SPEAKER_00: In verses twenty four to twenty five, the scripture reads Because I have called and ye refused, I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded.
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  SPEAKER_00: But ye have set at naught all my counsel, and would none of my reproof.
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  SPEAKER_00: Here is the tragedy.
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  SPEAKER_00: Wisdom called, but they refused.
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  SPEAKER_00: Wisdom stretched out her hand, but no one regarded.
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  SPEAKER_00: The counsel was not absent.
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  SPEAKER_00: The reproof was not unclear.
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  SPEAKER_00: The issue was not that God had not spoken.
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  SPEAKER_00: The issue was that they would none of his reproof.
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  SPEAKER_00: That is a searching phrase.
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  SPEAKER_00: They did not want it, they did not want correction, they did not want God's way, they wanted their own way, and then, when calamity came, they wanted deliverance from the consequences of that way.
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  SPEAKER_00: But Proverbs teaches that choices have harvests.
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  SPEAKER_00: This is not merely true for the unbeliever, it is true as a moral principle in God's government.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_00: A man reaps what he sows.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_00: A believer does not lose salvation by folly, but he may know the bitter discipline of the Father if he turns aside from wisdom.
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  SPEAKER_00: The unbeliever who finally refuses God's call faces judgment.
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  SPEAKER_00: The child of God who refuses correction faces chastening.
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_00: There is a difference between condemnation and discipline.
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  SPEAKER_00: For the believer in Christ, condemnation is gone, but fatherly discipline remains very real.
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  SPEAKER_00: That is why Proverbs matters.
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  SPEAKER_00: It is not just a book for children or young men.
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  SPEAKER_00: It is a book for every person who must ask, Am I walking wisely before God?
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  SPEAKER_00: The chapter closes with two opposite outcomes in verses thirty two and thirty three.
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  SPEAKER_00: For the turning away of the simple shall slay them, and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them.
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  SPEAKER_00: But whoso hearkeneth unto me shall dwell safely, and shall be quiet from fear of evil.
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  SPEAKER_00: There are two paths here.
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  SPEAKER_00: One path is the turning away of the simple.
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  SPEAKER_00: It looks harmless at first.
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  SPEAKER_00: It may even look successful for a time.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_00: Proverbs says The prosperity of fools shall destroy them.
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  SPEAKER_00: That means outward ease can become part of the danger.
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  SPEAKER_00: A person may prosper in the very path that is ruining him.
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  SPEAKER_00: The other path is hearing wisdom.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_00: Whoso hearkeneth unto me shall dwell safely.
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  SPEAKER_00: That does not mean a life without trials.
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  SPEAKER_00: It does not mean no sorrow, no pressure, no conflict.
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  SPEAKER_00: But it means the soul is in the place of safety, under the authority of God's word, guided by his wisdom, kept from the destructive power of self will.
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  SPEAKER_00: So Proverbs one gives us the starting point.
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  SPEAKER_00: Wisdom begins with the fear of the Lord.
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  SPEAKER_00: Wisdom listens.
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  SPEAKER_00: Wisdom receives correction.
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  SPEAKER_00: Wisdom turns at reproof.
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  SPEAKER_00: Wisdom does not delay obedience.
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  SPEAKER_00: Wisdom hears the voice of God while that voice is calling.
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  SPEAKER_00: And the great question Proverbs I leaves with us is this When wisdom cries, what do I do with her voice?
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  SPEAKER_00: Do I explain it away?
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  SPEAKER_00: Do I postpone it?
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  SPEAKER_00: Do I resent it, or do I bow?
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  SPEAKER_00: Because the fear of the Lord is not merely a doctrine to admire.
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  SPEAKER_00: It is the beginning of knowledge, it is the doorway into the path of wisdom.
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  SPEAKER_00: May the Lord give us ears to hear, hearts to receive, and feet to walk in the wisdom of his word.
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  SPEAKER_00: And as the Lord Jesus said in Revelation 2 7 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.