As I begin this morning, I want to ask you what is the best advice that you have received? Think about it. What is the best advice that you have received? Does it maybe have to do with marriage, dating, finances and investing, maybe work ethic? As you think about it, maybe you're able to think of one piece of advice that is really deeply shaped and formed a part of you, or maybe your life as a whole. Advice is one of the most sought after pieces of information in our world. Some of the largest podcasts, books and shows all revolve around this idea of gaining life advice. Think about even how we use things like Google or YouTube or AI. Most of our searches are for counsel or advice. Even in my own life this week, Dean and I were spending time figuring out how to put in stair treads. We spent, I don't want to say hours, but maybe hours on YouTube and watching tutorials trying to figure out what's the right way to do this. Or maybe you like life hacks or whatever. There are so many ways in which we are inundated and people seeking advice. In the book of Proverbs we're given a lot of advice. It is the Bible book of advice spanning a variety of topics. Practical advice on how to make money, how to have good relationships, both romantically and familiarly. How are you to speak? How are you not to speak? How should you plan? How should you not plan? It covers life's most common topics detailing not only how we should operate or how we should know about them, but how we can wisely succeed in them. Today we find ourselves in the introduction of the book of Proverbs. Solomon here outlines the title of the book, the purpose of the book, and the guiding principle of this book. This guiding principle is the piece of advice that undergirds all the advice that comes later. It is the core principle that guides all that he says in the following 900 verses of this book. And so given this, this will function as our structure this morning. We will look at this passage in three parts, answering the question, what are Proverbs? What is this book's purpose and what is the greatest advice? Let's look at our first point, looking at verse 1. What are Proverbs? The word Proverb in Hebrew can be translated to saying. So verse 1 could read as the sayings of Solomon, son of David, king of Israel. Solomon was the third king over Israel. He was the successor to his father David. In the history of Israel, there was no king like Solomon. He was the wisest, he was the wealthiest, it was the peak of Israel's civilization. In 1 Kings 3 you can read that God is willing to give Solomon anything he asked for. And instead of asking for fame or wealth or wives or whatever, he asks, very prudentially, he asks for wisdom. And seeing that this was good and godly, God was pleased to not only give Solomon and make him the wisest, give him wisdom and make him the wisest man on earth, but he gave him all the other trivial things that he could have asked for. He gave him the wealth, the fame and everything else. As the wisest man to live, Solomon pens for us Proverbs. He pens for us his sayings. The Oxford dictionary defines Proverbs as this, a well-known phrase or sentence that gives advice or says something that is generally true. This is really helpful for us, I really like that definition, it makes clear what a proverb is. In this book we are given phrases that allow us to have advice, good advice that give us knowledge, insight, instruction, guidance. These phrases are different from the rest of scripture. This is something that we should really take hold of. They are less like promises, they are more like truisms. This is advice that is generally true like 99% of the time. But there are exceptions to these phrases and sentences. There are exceptions to this good advice and this is what the books of Job and Ecclesiastes actually explore. They explore the exception to this wise life. Look at a famous or common proverb, Proverbs chapter 10 verse 4. A slack hand makes one poor. The diligent hand makes one wealthy. This sounds very binary that if somebody is lazy they are going to be poor but if somebody is diligent they are going to be rich. Not every lazy person we know is poor. Not every diligent person we know is wealthy. But generally this principle is true. Does the righteous, diligent, God fearing individual typically prosper? Yes. But there are exceptions to this yes. Think of the suffering of Job. He was a diligent worker, wise, feared the Lord but he suffered greatly. All of his possessions, all of his life was taken from him. It explores the exception. Or think of Proverbs 22 verse 6. Train up a child in the way that he should go and even when he is old he will not depart from it. This is generally true but it is not a promise. You train a child on how they should live they will be imprinted with their thoughts and behaviors. There are many things that each of us can say that we have learned from our youth. But your children and you yourselves still have an active sin nature and it drives you to rebel and it will drive your children to rebel. This proverb is not saying that parents are going to somehow lead children to faith with any level of certainty. It is not saying that. It is saying that they are to train them in the way that they should go. I think actually it is teaching the inverse. It is giving parents a warning that if they allow their children to go their own way they will not depart from their foolishness when they are older. So parents are to teach them how they should go. Is it possible for this teaching to stick in some areas including their faith? Yes. But this is not a promise. It is advice for life. Does good teaching lead to ongoing faithfulness in children? And most times like I have said. But I want you to consider the life of Solomon. He records in this book great wisdom and even that proverb but he also records ecclesiastes. And if you read the scriptures in first Kings you see that the wisest man was still wayward and wandering. He was trained in the way that he should go. And he even trained others. But if you read of his life it is unclear whether he truly stayed the path. What we see from these examples that I have just given you here is that Proverbs gives us a general principle for life but not the exception. If you want the exceptions like I have said go to the books of Ecclesiastes and Job. The Proverbs are not promises but truisms. They are advice for life that are most often true than not. So what is the application of a point like this? The application is to read the Proverbs with a level of caution and meditation. Tim Keller says that the Proverbs are like hard candy. They can be bitten down into and you might get some benefit but you can also break your tooth in the process. What you could do instead is that you could simply linger on that hard candy and have it dissolve and know its sweetness. Keller here is emphasizing the need to meditate on a proverb instead of jumping to apply it and maybe even misappropriating it in your life. Maybe even hurting yourself and others in the process. And so my encouragement to you this morning is to read the Proverbs accordingly to their genre knowing and seeing our need for wisdom but also seeing that we need wisdom to read it itself. This advice needs wisdom to understand it which leads us to our second point. What is the purpose of this book? Because two to six we are given the purpose of the book of Proverbs. It is a book that seeks to give wisdom. That is its purpose. It seeks to give wisdom. Solomon uses five different verbs to communicate the giving of wisdom. He uses the words to know, to receive, to give, to understand and obtain. And with each of those verbs that he gives he provides a synonym to wisdom. In this he makes clear what wisdom is and who it is for. We are told what wisdom is in the audience of this book. Let's first look at the audience that Proverbs is written to. Look at me at verses four and five. It tells us that these phrases are written to give prudence to the simple, discretion to youth and verse five says it is given to the wise that they would increase or keep on learning. The simple person is not a dumb person. They are people who are naive. They might have knowledge about a particular topic, might actually even be experts in their craft or their jobs or their vocations but generally they are rather naive. Maybe even gullible. This is someone who is overly trusting. Even blind to red flags. Who easily falls into get rich quick schemes or easily believes information that they read online with little to no discretion. Being naive has nothing to do with youth or intellect but it has to do with wisdom. And the phrases here are given for those who are simple, those who are naive to have better judgment or prudence. It is more than giving them street smart. Instead it's like the epiphany of the Truman Show where he begins to see life as it truly is. It is a matter of seeing clearly and correctly. It is also written to youth to give them discretion. Children, the reality is that many of us or many of you struggle to know good and bad naturally. This is why your parents have taught you from a young age don't trust strangers because you are naturally trusting. You need to be taught what is good or bad. And this lack of weariness or carefulness is something that this book gives to you. It is not just a book given to adults, it is a book that is written to you. And the last group of people that the book of Proverbs is written to is for those who are already wise. And says that they are to increase in learning. It is easy to think that this book is for the naive or even the child. But it's given to the wise as well. Because the reality is that none of us have arrived. We are all in need of wisdom. And these phrases are for all of us to know and to grow so that we would be wise. But this still begs the question, what is wisdom? The definition of wisdom that we begin to see as a result of all the different synonyms is this. Wisdom is practical, moral and theological truth for life. The first instance where we see that wisdom is practical is actually not found in our passage but it's found in the first use of the Hebrew word hokma which is wisdom. The word for wisdom is not used for the first time when speaking about Solomon. It's not used for the first time in the book of Proverbs but it's used for the first time in the construction of the tabernacle in the book of Exodus. In Exodus we read that the workers who make the curtains and the other furnishings of the tabernacle are filled with the wisdom of God for their work. They are given skill for life. Wisdom is practical. It is meant to give us skillful living. In our text we see that wisdom is practical in that it gives instruction, insight, understanding, guidance, discernment and prudence. With this we see that there is something that we must do and from both evidences whether in Exodus or in Proverbs we see that there is something that we must do. Wisdom requires the existence of knowledge but knowledge is not wisdom. To be wise we must have information. The makers of the tabernacle they needed to have information, they needed to have designs but they also had to have the craft to work it out. And so to be wise you must have information about a situation or a topic but plain information does not mean that you know how to utilize that information in a correct way to live wisely or skillfully. Just because you know about stocks doesn't mean that you know exactly how to invest in such an asset. Or just because you know how a helicopter works doesn't mean you know how to fly it. Wisdom is not just having knowledge but it is knowing how to use that knowledge. It's having understanding to look at a situation and know what to do. Not just able to read emotions or see what's going on. There is a level of craftsmanship or knowing how to live out an action that characterizes what wisdom is. Like I said earlier just like the workers in the tabernacle they not only just knew the designs but they knew how to carry it out. Though wisdom sounds like a very theoretical word, wisdom is a very practical work. I'll repeat that for us. Though wisdom sounds like a very theoretical word it is a very practical work. What we see here is that wisdom is not only practical but it's also moral. Look at me at verse 3. Wisdom is not just knowing what to do with no moral grounding. Is knowing what to do by God's standards of righteousness, equity and justice. It is doing right by your neighbor. It is seeking the betterment of others. It is ensuring that people are not cheated, hurt or harmed. When you carry out your actions, your words and other skillful living, true wisdom is expressed by upholding God's character and his heart. By upholding his word. By obeying what his scriptures have said and living in consistency to his character. There are some people who think that wisdom is something else. They think that wisdom is getting what they want. It's maybe characterized by being self-serving. It's known by being cunning or charming. That posture of being cunning or charming has no concern for God or others. It only seeks after self. But what God is after is not this. We are to be people who are wise living out our lives morally as God intended before God and for the blessing and benefit of others. Wisdom is captured and carried by God's standards and his word. I want you to think back to the garden. For the creature that is known as most cunning over all creatures appears, the serpent. And his motivation, to live and to say what is contrary to God's word and to God's people. He presented delight but truly delivered death. This is what cunning and charming will do. And if we operate like this, we operate like the snake. Quoting lies all so that we can get our desired outcomes. The goal of wisdom, the goal of our lives is not about self. It is God's standards and word and the benefit of others. Like I said, some people think that this is wisdom. That being able to manipulate people is somehow wise. But I need to explicitly say this, manipulation, charming and deceit is sin. And we may fall to this allure, but may we repent of that. Instead would we seek true wisdom that is rooted in God's word and reflects his truth. Grounded in God's goal for justice, righteousness and equity instead of self-seeking glory. What we've seen is that wisdom is practical, moral and it is theological. It's not only rooted in God's word, but it is rooted in God himself. Look at me at verse 7. This is the repeated refrain of the Proverbs. It says to fear the Lord. It is where knowledge and wisdom find their genesis. They find their beginning in the fear of the Lord. The ESV study Bible helpfully notes this. Knowledge and wisdom are closely tied together in Proverbs. Knowledge tends to focus on the correct understanding of the world and oneself as creatures of a magnificent and loving God. While wisdom is the acquired skill of applying that knowledge rightly. Or the skill in the art of godly living. In verse 7, Solomon says that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. But in chapter 9 verse 10, he says that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. What we should see is that the foundation and beginning of true wisdom and true knowledge is the fear of the Lord. Meaning that all wisdom and knowledge should be based on the fear of the Lord. It is where the journey begins and where the foundation is found. It is in us seeing God rightly that we know ourselves and the world truly. I want us to think about it this way. It's as though wisdom is a set of glasses. Or even more so it's like wisdom is like corrective eye surgery. Apart from God, we have sin stained spectacles on. All that we see and all that we know in this world is distorted. It is as though that we were born with cataracts or that we are naturally colorblind. We are able to see to some extent but our vision is obscured. And what we are seeing and being presented is actually an untrue reality. But just as somebody with these conditions needs a doctor to tell them their diagnosis, we need the scriptures. We don't naturally realize that we're looking at the world wrongly. But God tells us that we have a warped view of reality. Naturally, we have sin stained spectacles on. We need God to correct our vision. And wisdom is like the set of glasses that allows us to see the world right. It is like taking out those cataracts from our eyes that we can see that colors match, that shadows are actually people. That whatever is blocking our corneas is no longer there. We begin to see situations as they are and we seek to live life in accordance to them. And seeing their standards not of our own but God's. Wisdom corrects how we see and live in every sphere of life. Whether it is work or rest. Whether it is joy or anger. Whether it is desires or delight. Or whether it's from knowing what to say and how to say it. Wisdom allows us to see rightly. It allows us not just to see ourselves as faint shadows. Or this world sort of obscured. It allows us to see accurately and truly. It allows us to see God rightly. As I'm saying all this, some of you might be wondering, how do I get these spectacles? How do I get wisdom and knowledge? The scriptures teach us here that you must fear the Lord. This leads us to our last point. What is the greatest advice? What is the best advice? It is the most repeated refrain of the book of Proverbs. Fear the Lord. To fear the Lord, to most of you, doesn't sound like good advice. You might be wondering, isn't God loving Jim? Isn't he kind? What does the Bible mean by fearing the Lord? How does that make sense? It sounds like a paradox. For the unbeliever, there is a real sense that they should fear God. That they will be judged according to their deeds and they will know the wrath of God if they do not trust in Jesus Christ for the friggin' of sins. There's a real tangible fear that exists. Because our God is not someone that we can be trifled with. He is holy and pure. But you might still be wondering, aren't these words given to believers? Why do Christians need to fear God? The fear that is written about here and the 150 other references in the Bible, both Old and New Testament, are not speaking about the fear of consequence. Instead, it is speaking of the fear of reverence and awe. Martin Luther, when reflecting on the fear of the Lord, made the distinction between servile fear and filial fear. Servile is the way in which we can think about maybe a servant or slave. And filial fear is the way in which somebody should think about a parent or family member. Servile fear is to be what comes to mind when we think of fear most naturally. It is the distress that fills our hearts. It is the doom and gloom and danger. It is the kind of fight or flight response. Or even like the Hollywood thought of being zapped by a lightning bolt from heaven. It is fearing punishment. But that fearing of punishment leads to compulsion rather than obedience. It leads to a form of contriving oneself to God and having a wrong view of God. And not seeing Him as He is. Whereas filial fear is the kind of fear that a child has for a parent, like I said. It is a fear that is rooted in respect and love rather than doom and gloom. It is the desire to not displease or offend a parent or overseer. Maybe you can think of us as like your boss or even a parent. There's somebody in your life that you can see that there's something good about them but you also don't want to come across them because of their authority and honor. This filial fear is the fear that we are to have for God. It is the posture of a child that recognizes God for who He is and sees themselves for who they are. Hearing God is seeing God accurately for His majesty and honor and living life in accordance to who He is and who He's called you to be. Calvin and his institutes makes clear that we do not see ourselves or the world clearly if we do not think about God accurately. And wisdom, the fear of the Lord is seeing God for who He is in reverence and awe. It is seeing God's majesty, glory and honor and it is by seeing that that we gain wisdom. You must ask, you still haven't told me how to get this right view of God. How do I have this filial fear? To be a child of God, you must have a relationship with God as a child. You must be adopted by Him. You must have a relationship with Him. You cannot somehow start fearing God without access to God through Christ. And it is by believing in Jesus Christ that you begin to have a right view of God and yourself. That you see your sin and you see your Savior. The wisdom and knowledge are known by faith. Fearing the Lord is an act of faith that many of us who profess Christ with our lips struggle with because we don't fear Him in our hearts. If you're a Christian here today, I want to ask you, do you actually fear the Lord? Do you see Him as worthy of all worship, honor and glory? Do you really live to obey Him and glorify Him? Or have you fallen prey like many of us do to fearing someone or something else in the place of God? Putting maybe yourself or others in the place of exaltation. Living in a place of the fear of man and the fear of God. Reviewing what people will say about you, their opinions of you, instead of what God thinks of you. What are you fearing? Are you fearing someone or something else? Or do you fear the Lord? When we fail to fear the Lord, the Scriptures tell us here that we live like fools. The text tells us that fools despise wisdom. This is connected in the context to lacking the fear of God or the fear of the Lord. At worst, it is an action that reveals that we hate God and therefore hate wisdom. What we must see is that people who do not fear God or when we don't fear God in our hearts. It's not that we've lost the information, but we have failed to live in light of true knowledge and wisdom. It doesn't mean that you don't have expertise. It doesn't mean that you lack ability. But what you lack is the Lord. I want you to think of maybe some of your vocations. If you're a teacher, a doctor, in finance, maybe in tech, there are ways in which wisdom's morality, wisdom's practicality, and wisdom's—there's no theological word that I can't bend it into that sort of manner, but the theism of wisdom should affect your work. If that is not grounding how you live and how you work, the ways in which you live, the ways in which you work will be deviated. There's no moral grounding that will keep you from just focusing on profits for the sake of what you want. Or see, thinking conveniently, well, if the person dies, then maybe we don't need to pay taxes on this or that. There is a level of grounding that wisdom gives us that is a contrast to just plain knowledge in these vocations. The need for wisdom is not just something that those in medicine and tech and business and the service goods and service industry need. All of us, all of us need wisdom, and that wisdom only comes from fearing the Lord. This fearing of the Lord is an ongoing need. It is a posture and place that we cannot forsake because once we do, we find ourselves in the place of fools. Instead, we need an ongoing posture of reverence, worship, and obedience. If you've yet to know Christ, and you've never seen yourself or the world or God for truly who they are, I call to you today to believe in Jesus Christ, that you would not fear God by the standards of punishment, but instead in the fear of worship and adoration, that you would not live in a way that is estranged from God, but instead as a child of God, that you would know true wisdom and knowledge today. For the believer this morning, would you see that wisdom and knowledge is offered to you? The reality is that so often we easily forsake this, revering something else that is not God. My call to you today from the Scriptures is to turn to Lord, that you would see God rightly, that you would live in the fear of the Lord, enjoying our God of this majesty and glory. Some of you though might be struggling with this, and so I want to leave you with these truths. Jesus Christ is the very wisdom of God, but as we see in Matthew's Gospel, it is recorded that one day there will be one who is greater than Solomon. And Jesus Christ is that greater than Solomon. He not only taught people to fear God, but He Himself lived it. In Isaiah 11, the Messiah is spoken of as one who fears the Lord and delights in it. He delights in the fear of the Lord. And we see in the life and ministry of Jesus, that He lived in humble submission to the Father. That in His humanity, He worshiped rightly. He had a right sense of reverence and obedience and adoration. Our God not only commanded these things and gives us this advice, but He Himself lived it and followed it. And He did this so that we would be counted and considered and made wise as we look to Him. So may we do that. Let us pray. Amen.