696. He is a Shield to Those who Walk Uprightly - December 2, 2024

[00:00:06] Welcome to Wisdom Today. My name is Bill Kelley and I'll be your host. In this podcast we will be exploring the book of Proverbs.

[00:00:21] Let's open in prayer. Father God, I thank you for anyone listening to this podcast today. Lord, I pray that you would reveal to everyone listening how much you truly love each and every one of them. I ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.

[00:00:37] This is Proverb 2 beginning in verse 1.

[00:01:07] Then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find knowledge of God. For the Lord gives wisdom. From His mouth come knowledge and understanding.

[00:01:19] He stores up sound wisdom for the upright. He is a Shield to Those who Walk Uprightly. He guards the paths of justice and preserves the way of His saints.

[00:01:32] Then you will understand righteousness and justice, equity and every good path. When wisdom enters your heart and knowledge is pleasant to your soul,

[00:01:46] Discretion will preserve you. Understanding will keep you. To deliver you from the way of evil. From the man who speaks perverse things.

[00:01:57] From those who leave the paths of uprightness. From those who leave the paths of uprightness to walk in the ways of darkness.

[00:02:03] Who rejoice in doing evil and delight in the perversity of the wicked.

[00:02:09] Whose ways are crooked and who are devious in their paths.

[00:02:15] To deliver you from the immoral woman. From the seductress who flatters with her words.

[00:02:22] Who forsakes the companion of her youth.

[00:02:25] And forgets the covenant of her God.

[00:02:28] For her house leads down to death.

[00:02:32] And her paths to the dead.

[00:02:34] None who go to her return.

[00:02:37] Nor do they regain the paths of life.

[00:02:40] So you may walk in the way of goodness.

[00:02:44] And keep to the paths of righteousness.

[00:02:47] For the upright will dwell in the land.

[00:02:51] And the blameless will remain in it.

[00:02:54] But the wicked will be cut off from the earth.

[00:02:58] And the unfaithful will be uprooted from it.

[00:03:03] Friends, this is your host, Bill Kelly.

[00:03:06] And I am now beginning my 33rd month of doing this podcast.

[00:03:12] This is podcast number 696.

[00:03:17] And what I'm going to do today is I am going to break down proverb number 2.

[00:03:24] And ordinarily, I do not do this with proverbs.

[00:03:29] I ordinarily teach a lesson.

[00:03:31] But what I'm going to do is actually spend this entire podcast on the second proverb.

[00:03:39] Because it is so vitally important.

[00:03:43] The actual title of proverb number 2 is the value of wisdom.

[00:03:50] And this wisdom really is broken down into two parts.

[00:03:55] There are 22 verses in proverb number 2.

[00:03:58] The first 13 verses talk about if you do all of these things.

[00:04:05] Then you will have wisdom.

[00:04:07] You will have benefits if you do everything that Solomon is instructing you to do in this proverb.

[00:04:19] After verse 13, we talk about people who do not do what Solomon is suggesting that you do in your life.

[00:04:30] So first of all, I'm going to read the first four verses.

[00:04:34] So let's begin proverb 2 and read verses 1 through 4.

[00:04:39] My son, if you receive my words and treasure my commands within you.

[00:04:47] In other words, if you follow God's commands.

[00:04:51] So that you incline your ear to wisdom and apply your heart to understanding.

[00:04:58] Yes, if you cry out for discernment.

[00:05:02] And lift up your voice for understanding.

[00:05:05] If you seek her as silver.

[00:05:10] And this is wisdom we are talking about.

[00:05:13] And search for her.

[00:05:15] Once again, we're talking about wisdom.

[00:05:18] As for hidden treasures.

[00:05:21] Verse 5.

[00:05:23] Then you will understand the fear of the Lord.

[00:05:28] And find the knowledge of God.

[00:05:32] So friends, my first point of today's lesson is.

[00:05:38] If you truly want wisdom, you will have to go after it.

[00:05:45] Now let me read that again.

[00:05:46] I want to make sure that this is very clear.

[00:05:49] If you truly want wisdom, you will have to go after it.

[00:05:56] Now friends, I am reading out of the Nelson Study Bible.

[00:06:00] And listen to what my Bible says for verses 1 through 4.

[00:06:06] These verses begin the second of the My Son passages.

[00:06:13] And tie the concepts of wisdom and the knowledge of God more closely together.

[00:06:21] On the one hand, wisdom is near and available.

[00:06:27] Yet, it is not easy to embrace.

[00:06:32] I want you to think about that.

[00:06:35] It is not easy to embrace.

[00:06:37] In other words, you're going to have to go after it.

[00:06:44] Let's read these four verses again.

[00:06:46] I really want these to sink in.

[00:06:48] My son, if you receive my words.

[00:06:52] And the key word there is if.

[00:06:55] We have to openly receive his words.

[00:06:59] And treasure my commands within you.

[00:07:02] In other words, you need to understand how important reading the Word of God is.

[00:07:11] So that you incline your ear to wisdom.

[00:07:17] Notice what it's telling us here.

[00:07:19] We have to incline our ear to wisdom.

[00:07:24] In other words, we have to want it.

[00:07:26] We have to go after it.

[00:07:28] And apply your heart to understanding.

[00:07:32] Notice the word heart here.

[00:07:34] And he's not talking about head knowledge.

[00:07:36] He's talking about getting the Word of God in our hearts.

[00:07:45] Yes, if you cry out for discernment and lift up your voice for understanding.

[00:07:53] If you seek her as silver and search for her as for hidden treasure.

[00:08:02] I want you to think about this.

[00:08:04] We're talking about wisdom here.

[00:08:06] So listen to the commentary one more time.

[00:08:11] On the one hand, wisdom is near and available.

[00:08:18] Yet, it is not easy to embrace.

[00:08:22] Let's go on to verses 5 through 8.

[00:08:28] Then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God.

[00:08:36] Now, let me go back to the book of Job.

[00:08:39] And Job's definition of having wisdom is having a fear of the Lord.

[00:08:47] Think about it.

[00:08:48] Having wisdom is having a fear of the Lord.

[00:08:55] Let's go to verse 6.

[00:08:57] For the Lord gives wisdom.

[00:09:00] From his mouth come knowledge and understanding.

[00:09:05] He stores up sound wisdom for the upright.

[00:09:10] He is a shield to those who walk uprightly.

[00:09:14] He guards the paths of justice and preserves the way of his saints.

[00:09:22] Friends, these are precious, precious promises of God.

[00:09:28] Friends, my second point of today's lesson is,

[00:09:31] The Lord gives wisdom from his mouth come knowledge and understanding.

[00:09:39] Listen to the commentary for verses 5 through 8.

[00:09:45] When a person seeks wisdom,

[00:09:48] He or she finds it in the fear of the Lord or the knowledge of God.

[00:09:57] Look at how closely intertwined these two concepts are.

[00:10:02] Having a reverent fear of the Lord and having the knowledge of God.

[00:10:09] They go together.

[00:10:12] And I really don't believe that you can separate these two.

[00:10:16] I think if you do not have the fear of the Lord, you're not going to have wisdom.

[00:10:21] And if you don't have the knowledge of God, then you are not going to have reverence for Him.

[00:10:30] Those who know God fear or revere Him.

[00:10:36] So I'm not talking about being afraid of God.

[00:10:39] I'm actually having a reverence for God.

[00:10:43] As though we understand who God truly is.

[00:10:48] Verses 6 through 8 resemble the words of a psalm.

[00:10:53] Psalm 91.

[00:10:54] And most of you are familiar with Psalm 91.

[00:10:57] And most of you would admit that Psalm 91 is one of your favorite passages of Scripture.

[00:11:06] Sound wisdom.

[00:11:08] Here is another word for wisdom.

[00:11:10] A word that can also mean abiding, success, or victory.

[00:11:18] Let's go back to verse 7 where it tells us sound wisdom.

[00:11:24] It says, God stores up sound wisdom for the upright.

[00:11:30] He is a shield to those who walk uprightly.

[00:11:35] And what does that mean?

[00:11:37] Friends, that means that we can hang on to the Word of God.

[00:11:42] It is stability.

[00:11:44] It gives us a foundation that we can hang our hat on.

[00:11:50] That we can live our life by.

[00:11:53] That we can just grab a hold on.

[00:11:56] Let's go to verse 9.

[00:11:58] Then you will understand righteousness and justice, equity and every good path.

[00:12:05] Friends, these things all go together.

[00:12:08] We need to be righteous.

[00:12:10] We need to have a fear of the Lord.

[00:12:13] We need to incline our ear to wisdom.

[00:12:17] We want to have understanding, so we need to go after it.

[00:12:22] Verse 10.

[00:12:23] When wisdom enters your heart and knowledge is pleasant to your soul,

[00:12:30] discretion will preserve you.

[00:12:35] Understanding will keep you.

[00:12:38] To deliver you from the way of evil, from the man who speaks perverse things,

[00:12:46] from those who leave the paths of uprightness to walk in the ways of darkness.

[00:12:55] So, friends, these words are key here.

[00:12:59] Because if we do not follow righteousness, then we are going to follow darkness.

[00:13:09] Righteousness has to do with God.

[00:13:12] Darkness has to do with the evil one or Satan.

[00:13:18] My third and final point of today's lesson is this.

[00:13:23] When wisdom enters your heart, discretion will preserve you and you will be delivered from the way of evil.

[00:13:33] Now, let's go to the commentary for verses 8 through 13.

[00:13:40] The phrase, paths of justice, contrasts strongly with ways of darkness.

[00:13:48] This contrast introduces one of the dominant themes of Proverbs.

[00:13:55] The contrast of two roads.

[00:13:57] Jesus spoke of two roads.

[00:14:02] One narrow and the other broad.

[00:14:06] The right road is marked by demands of righteousness, justice, and equity.

[00:14:14] These demands come from God's law.

[00:14:18] Friends, what I'd like to do at this time is go to the Gospel of Matthew chapter 7.

[00:14:27] And let's look at verses 13 and 14.

[00:14:32] These two verses are entitled, The Narrow Way.

[00:14:37] Enter by the narrow gate.

[00:14:40] For wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leads to destruction.

[00:14:47] And there are many who go in by it.

[00:14:51] Because narrow is the gate.

[00:14:54] And difficult is the way which leads to life.

[00:14:58] And there are few who find it.

[00:15:03] These two verses are so powerful, I'd like to read them again.

[00:15:08] What I'd ask that you do is close your eyes.

[00:15:12] And I want you to meditate on these two verses as I reread them.

[00:15:17] Enter by the narrow gate.

[00:15:21] For wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leads to destruction.

[00:15:27] And there are many who go in by it.

[00:15:31] Because narrow is the gate, and difficult is the way which leads to life.

[00:15:39] And there are few who find it.

[00:15:45] That is so powerful.

[00:15:46] I really would like for you to ponder that.

[00:15:51] And that is my call to action today.

[00:15:57] What I'd like for you to do is go to the Gospel of Matthew chapter 7, verses 13 and 14.

[00:16:08] And I would like for you to meditate and read those two verses about five times before you go to bed tonight.

[00:16:20] I want you to ponder that.

[00:16:23] Friends, if we are truly to live the life that Jesus has called us to live,

[00:16:31] we need to be aware that it's not going to be easy.

[00:16:35] There are so many paths that lead to destruction.

[00:16:42] But the way to righteousness and the way to wisdom and understanding and knowledge and integrity and doing the right thing, it's narrow.

[00:16:57] But the key is you have to purpose in your heart that you are going to be that way.

[00:17:06] It is so easy to be led astray and enter into darkness.

[00:17:13] But keep in mind, in Him there is no darkness at all.

[00:17:19] So if you ever stray from the path, and if you go into darkness, God or Jesus, neither one will go with you into that area that you were walking into.

[00:17:37] Jesus is the light.

[00:17:40] We are to follow the light, and we are to walk in the light.

[00:17:46] And we are to be the light.

[00:17:49] The light will overcome the darkness.

[00:17:54] Do not go there.

[00:17:57] Friends, I will never end a podcast without giving anyone an opportunity to receive Jesus as their Lord and Savior.

[00:18:06] If there is anyone listening today and you've never taken that step, I invite you to repeat a simple prayer after me today.

[00:18:15] Father God, I want you to thank you for sending Jesus to earth.

[00:18:20] Jesus, thank you that you were willing to come to earth and die on a cross for everyone listening to this podcast today.

[00:18:28] Jesus, I believe that you are the Son of God.

[00:18:31] I confess that I am a sinner and in need of a Savior.

[00:18:38] I ask you to come into my heart.

[00:18:40] I ask you to lead me and guide me from this point forward in my life.

[00:18:46] I make you my Lord and Savior.

[00:18:49] Friends, if you repeated that prayer, I believe that you are now a member of the family of God.

[00:18:55] Welcome to the family.

[00:18:57] Now, may the Lord bless you and keep you.

[00:19:01] The Lord make His face shine upon you and be gracious to you.

[00:19:06] The Lord lift up His countenance upon you and give you peace.

[00:19:12] Friends, tomorrow is Testimony Day.

[00:19:16] Please join me and a special guest as we further explore wisdom today.