Well, good evening. Please turn in your copies of God's Word to the book of Proverbs, Proverbs chapter three. And we'll read together verses 13 to 20. This is God's Word. Blessed is the one who finds wisdom, and the one who gets understanding. For the gain from her is better than gain from silver, and her profit better than gold. She is more precious than jewels, and nothing you desire can compare with her. Long life is in her right hand. In her left hand are riches and honor. Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace. She is a tree of life to those who lay hold of her. Those who hold her fast are called blessed. The Lord, by wisdom, founded the earth. By understanding, he established the heavens. By his knowledge, the deeps broke open and the clouds dropped down the dew. So ends God's word. Let us pray together. Oh Lord, we thank you for your wisdom from on high. We thank you for your holy, infallible, perfect word. And we ask that your word would bear fruit in our lives by your Holy Spirit. Work now through the preaching of your word that we might all grow in the wisdom and the knowledge that you call blessed. We pray in Jesus' name, amen. Well, much like all of the imagery we've, sorry, much like all that we've seen so far in Proverbs, our passage is filled with imagery and symbols. In our passage, we have the picture of Lady Wisdom holding out her right hand, and in her hand, she holds the blessing of long life. This life is described as a way of pleasantness and of peace. It's something we're told holds more value than riches or anything that can be desired. And who wouldn't want this? In fact, everybody does want this. And everyone has throughout history. The ancient Mesopotamian hero Gilgamesh set out to acquire everlasting life, and he did so through the search for wisdom. The Greeks seek life through wisdom, as Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians. Even modern day scientists try to attain immortality through their research, like cryogenic freezing. Throughout time, man has been on a quest for life through wisdom. And that's because everyone has within them that yearning for a life that is beyond this present experience that we all know in the brokenness and the fallenness of this world. Everyone has a yearning to escape death and decay. And yet history over and over again has shown us that this good and everlasting life is elusive. and that those who have tried to attain it have failed in every attempt. And the reason for this is because what all of these approaches have in common is that they are all attempts to acquire the blessed life through leaning on one's own wisdom. They are all attempts at grasping for life not through leaning on the wisdom of God and not through the fear of God, but through one's own wisdom and understanding. And therefore these paths will never lead to the blessed life, let alone eternal life. Ever since the fall of Adam, the way to the tree of life has been cut off. Because Adam ate the forbidden fruit of the tree, we are all cut off from the tree of life. But here in our passage, Solomon sets before us the pathway back to the tree of life. And it's found through embracing lady wisdom. Solomon says she is a tree of life to those who lay hold of her. Those who hold her fast are called blessed. You see, the blessed life and eternal life is not found through trying to blaze our own way through life. It's not found through leaning on our own understanding or by following our heart. No, life is attained as we forsake all of those things, as we lean not on our own understanding, as we forsake the world, the flesh, and the devil, and we hold fast to wisdom and wisdom. is received through the fear of the Lord and through trusting in his Son, the one who is the way, the truth, and the life. So let's consider how the Father sets this before us. We'll see three things, how the Father sets before us the value of wisdom, the life of wisdom, and the fruitfulness of wisdom. So first we have set before us the value of wisdom. Those who obtain Those who find wisdom obtain something. of great value. That's what we read in verse 13. Blessed is the one who finds wisdom and the one who gets understanding. The word find here conveys the sense of finding something after a long and a hard search for that thing. It's not finding in the sense of maybe if you're fortunate enough to maybe find a $10 bill on the floor or something like that or what happened to me one time buying a used book and finding someone had used a $10 bill as a bookmark. That's not the kind of finding that Solomon is talking about. No, this is a finding after a hard search, after earnestly seeking for wisdom. And what is promised to those who earnestly seek and find wisdom is blessedness. Blessed is the one who finds wisdom. Now what's interesting is that the Hebrew doesn't actually say blessed is the one, but blessed is the adam, or the man who finds wisdom. What does that remind you of? The imagery and language of the blessed man. Well here Solomon is reminding us of Psalm 1. This is an echo of the very first words of the book of Psalms that speak of how the man is blessed who walks not in the counsel of the wicked. And so to follow God's law and to walk in his paths is the way of blessing. And here Solomon connects that way of blessing alongside the path of wisdom. So wisdom is valuable to us in the first place because it promises us blessing. This word blessing can be translated as happy. It's saying that the one who obtains wisdom obtains happiness in the sense that they are experiencing the happiness, the joy of right relationship with God. They are experiencing the happiness of God's blessing and good favor. One commentator, Waltke, says that blessedness describes people who experience life optimally as the creator intended. So in other words, this is not the kind of happiness that comes even momentarily through things like sin. It's not a happiness that's rooted in the things of this world. Rather, it's the happiness that comes through living life in the fear of the Lord. It's the blessing of a life that has meaning and purpose and direction. Wisdom here is offering us the pathway by which we walk with God and we experience his divine favor smiling upon us. Truly, this is the blessed life And this promise of a blessed life before the Lord is greater than anything money can buy. Look at how the father shows the value of wisdom compared to everything else. First he compares it with silver and he says, for the gain from her is better than the gain from silver. Well, dad, that's just silver. What about gold? Yes, he says, and her profit better than gold. More than that, he says, she is more precious than jewels. Notice how he continues to ratchet it up every single time with one thing that's greater than the thing that preceded it. Such is the value of wisdom. Finally, the father says, the value of wisdom, my son, is beyond anything you can even desire. And nothing you desire can compare with her. No matter what you desire, whether it's the wealth of the world, whether it's the might and power of the greatest militaries in the world, whether it's owning vast stretches of land, nothing compares with the value of having wisdom and holding her in your arms. Wisdom is valuable because it holds out to us something that money cannot buy. It holds out to us the blessings of the Lord. One commentator also said, wisdom is better than the profit of silver and gold because money can put food on the table, but not fellowship around it. It can buy a house, but not a home. It can give a woman jewelry, but not the love and care that she really needs. By contrast, wisdom gives both physical and spiritual benefits. What's worth noting about this passage is that Solomon had all of these things. He had silver and gold and rubies and even he could say, it's nothing compared to wisdom. And I think that's comforting to us on a number of levels. It's comforting to us because probably most of us will never know what it is to have stacks of gold bars and ingots and piles of rubies and stacks of silver coins. Probably most of us won't know what that's ever like. Some of us in this room may be living paycheck to paycheck. Some of us may, even though perhaps earning a decent wage, may be still struggling to pay off loans and mortgages and student loans and all of those things. What Solomon says is that regardless of the number of figures in your bank account, or even what your dream salary might be, you have something far more precious that is actually available to you. You know, maybe you wish that you were in a better place financially. Maybe you hope to get to a place where you'll be more financially secure and stable. But whether any of us ever attain our financial goals in this life, well, only the Lord knows. It's uncertain whether we'll attain those things. But here, the Father holds out to the Son this great gift of wisdom. And wisdom holds out to us a value that can be attained. You have the extended arm of Lady Wisdom extending to you and offering you the great gift that is wisdom if you will take it. It's a gift that is greater than anything we can possibly imagine or desire. It's more valuable than all the riches of the world because in her hand is life with God and communion with him through Jesus Christ and by his spirit. The Apostle Paul came to this realization finally when his eyes had been opened. A man who was well accomplished in his life and a man who could have gone on to do great things and be thought very well of in his religious Jewish heritage. By the world's standards, the world that he lived in, he was a very accomplished man. And yet he said, whatever gain I had, I counted it as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord. Paul goes on to speak in other places of how this secret wisdom of God was revealed to us through Jesus Christ. And thus he declares in 1 Corinthians 2.9, But what no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him. You see, wisdom is greater than anything that can be imagined or desired, because it leads to the greatest treasure of all. It leads us to Jesus Christ, who Paul tells us is the storehouse of all wisdom and treasure. And so, dear Christian, As wisdom is held out to you, seek it, find it, get it, as Proverbs tells us. And in finding it, you will find God's blessing, the greatest blessing of all, communion with him through Christ. So the father has just told the son that wisdom is valuable because it holds out great blessings more valuable than gold and silver and rubies or anything that could be desired. Secondly then, in verses 16 to 18, the father lays out the life of wisdom. In verse 16 we see that, the life that wisdom holds out to us. He says, long life is in her right hand, in her left hand are riches and honor. So wisdom here is being personified, so made to look like a person as it were, and she's holding out gifts in her extended arms. In her right hand is long life, and in her left is honor and wealth. This image of Lady Wisdom holding these gifts in her hands is significant, because to hold something in your left hand means that it's a good thing, but it's not the greatest thing. But to hold something in your right hand is to signal that this is the best thing. It's the greater of the two. And it may be that Solomon here is doing some apologetics against Egyptian wisdom. You see, the Egyptian goddess of wisdom, Ma'at, also was pictured as extending her arms and holding out gifts in her hands. However, she holds wisdom in her left hand, and in her right hand, she holds a scepter, symbolizing power and might and prestige and wealth. The point being that that is the greater of the two things. Whatever about wisdom, it's good to have, but this is what you must search for, wealth and power. However, Solomon depicts Lady Wisdom as reversing those two. Instead, she holds out long life in her right hand, and wealth and honor and power in her left. And thus Solomon is saying that wealth and honor and riches and these things, these are good things. It's not wrong to have these things. But the greater thing is long life, lasting life, lengths of days. lived before your father, lengths of days in right relationship with the Lord, lived in the fear of the Lord, a life and length of days that's described in verse 17 as a way of pleasantness and a path of peace. And we see that, don't we, at least in the early days of King Solomon? You remember how when God told Solomon that he could ask him whatever he wanted and God would give it. And Solomon asks for wisdom. And then God says, because you asked for wisdom and you didn't ask for wealth and power and your enemies to be destroyed and all of those other things, well, not only will I give you wisdom, but I'll also give you all of these other things. This is a powerful picture. of what we are to pursue and strive after. It reminds one of the teachings of our Lord when he taught us that it's possible to attain even the wealth of the world and own the world itself and yet be poor because we've lost our own lives. But on the flip side, you could be financially dirt poor But if your trust is in Christ, then what you gain is something that money cannot buy. You gain the blessing of eternal life. And so, beloved, it's worth searching your own heart and asking, as you look inside your own soul and as you personify it with two hands stretched out, in which hand do you hold Christ and the things of Christ? And in which hand do you hold things that are good, but ultimately not the ultimate good? Things like your job, your relationships, your resources and finances, your dreams and ambitions, your desire for respect and prestige. In which hand do you hold Christ? Hold him in your right hand and do not let go. Pursue him and know the blessing of life with him. Well, Solomon continues to unfold this theme of life and the life that wisdom leads to in verse 18. There he writes, she is a tree of life to those who lay hold of her. Those who hold her fast are called blessed. So what is wisdom to those who find her? She is a tree of life. While this phrase, the tree of life, should immediately send off signals in our minds, it should make us think back, to ask the question, where have we heard this before? Of course, it comes from the very beginning of the Bible, doesn't it? In the book of Genesis. In the beginning, after creating the world, God places Adam inside a garden. And in that garden, God places fruit trees to be eaten and enjoyed. And then he places two more trees, The tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And God told Adam that he could eat of any of the trees of the garden except for the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, explaining that in the day that you eat of that tree, you will surely die. What did the tree of life represent? Well, the tree of life represented God's promise to Adam that if he obeyed all of God's commandments, he would have life, not through his own means of grasping at what he should not take, but rather through what God would give him. This was what we call an eschatological promise. He was promised the good and eternal life upon obedience. However, Adam did not trust in the Lord. He did not lean on the Lord's understanding and wisdom, instead he leaned on his own, and he and his wife grasped at what was not theirs. He took that illegitimate quest for knowledge and wisdom, so as to be like God, and he ate of the forbidden tree. And just as God warned, instead of receiving life, Adam became cursed with death and decay. And Adam and Eve were then expelled from the garden and cut off from the tree of life. in a rather sad and ironic turn of events. Adam had been placed in the garden to guard and to keep it. Now Adam was exiled from the garden and in his place God puts a cherubim with fiery swords whose mission is to guard and keep the garden, but now from Adam. For Adam and for us, there is no way back into that garden, no matter how hard we try. And the cherubim again, appearing within the certain curtains of the tabernacle, reinforced that memory that the way to life, eternal life, has been barred and lost through Adam. And ever since Adam's expulsion, we have all been striving to regain entry to the tree of life through our own sinful means. whether it's scientists trying to attain immortality through cryogenic freezing, or it's politicians and philosophers trying to create a utopia here on Earth. But even on an individual level, like our first father, we try to secure for ourselves what we think is the good and blessed life. And whenever we do so, we do it apart from God, and we do it leaning on our own understanding, throwing off what God has said is very good. And we do it through various means, through abusing creation, through the misuse of our own bodies in ways that are forbidden. There are all kinds of ways we're tempted to secure what we think is the good life. to secure what we value, which is the treasures of this dying, passing age. But all of our attempts to gain re-entry to Eden and to once again secure the Tree of Life, they're doomed to fail because we are cursed and the path to the Tree of Life is closed off. But what's incredible is that Solomon now says that wisdom is a tree of life. She is a tree of life to those who lay hold of her. Access to that tree was cut off, but here we're told that there is a new way that is opened up to the tree of life, and it comes through wisdom. The New Testament gives us a fuller understanding of what Solomon is describing here as he speaks of the tree of life and wisdom opening up the way to the tree. Paul, in 1 Corinthians, describes what Christ did on another tree. Paul declares that this, the cross of Christ and his work there, is the wisdom of God. Further, Paul declares that this wisdom comes to us, not through the sages and wise ones of this age, but through the preaching of the gospel. And thus the wisdom that leads us back to the tree of life is the wisdom of the gospel. And in the wisdom of the gospel, God reveals to us that a second Adam has come, one who has obeyed where the first Adam failed. one who has been obedient perfectly to the Father, one who feared the Lord, one who obeyed. Jesus regained that way into Eden by climbing the cursed tree. As a result, through faith in Him, we again have access to the tree of life. It's interesting, the Bible begins and ends with this imagery of the tree of life. At the very end, Revelation chapter 22 draws on this imagery showing how the sentence of death that came upon us because of Adam's sin is now reversed and removed so that now in Christ we once again have access to that tree of life in paradise. The way that we take hold of that tree of life is by holding fast to Christ by faith. the eternal life and blessing of life before the Lord that this tree symbolizes is something that we receive now through Christ, through faith in him, the one who loves us and gave himself for us. And so, beloved, humble yourself before the Lord. Lean no longer on the rickety old fence of your own knowledge and wisdom and understanding. Let go of all of the vain and worthless and futile, sinful, foolish attempts to secure life, and instead lean on the wisdom of the Lord. Take hold of the wisdom of the gospel, for she is a tree of life to those who lay hold of her. Those who hold her fast are called blessed. Well, we've seen the value of wisdom, Secondly, the life of wisdom. The third thing we'll see is the fruitfulness of wisdom. Well, with all of this talk of Blessing for those who hold fast to wisdom and all of this description of a blessed and pleasant life for those who take hold of wisdom. What impact does that have in the here and now? Yes, we know that Revelation 22 sets forth the tree of life, but what about between the fall and our experience of glory? Well, that's where we see finally that wisdom is given that we might be fruitful Solomon has already taken us back to the garden to consider the fall of Adam and his exile from the tree of life. Now he takes us back one step further to the very beginning of time itself when God created the heavens and the earth. Look at verses 19 and 20. The Lord by wisdom founded the earth. By understanding, he established the heavens. By his knowledge, the deeps broke open and the clouds dropped down the dew. This is language that is clearly an echo of God's creation of the heavens and the earth in Genesis chapter one. And the key point that Solomon is making is that it's by wisdom that God founded the earth. So he didn't just create, he created by wisdom. All that he did was the working out of his own wisdom. As he mapped out the geography of the world, the placement of stars and planets. His design of the intricate, minute details of every living thing and every inanimate thing. The world did not come about by chance. The world is not random or purposeless or meaningless. No, it is all the fruit of God's wisdom worked out in time and space. And thus, after creating all things, God was able to look upon his creation that came about by his wisdom and say, this is very good. Because Solomon connects wisdom with God's creation of the world, we can therefore conclude that wisdom is connected with nature itself. Wisdom coheres with the world that God made by his wisdom. He made this world with rules and order and design. In his wisdom, he created two sexes, male and female. He created a world with plants and animals to be cared for and used to good ends. He created a world that had cause and effect, good consequences for good actions, bad consequences for bad actions. It's no surprise, therefore, that when the world throws off the wisdom of God, they also throw off the rules and the design of nature and creation itself. They do, as Paul says, what is not natural to men and women. Rather than caring for the planet and stewarding animals, men either treat animals cruelly or else they worship animals, holding them and their lives as more valuable even than human life. You see, the throwing off of the wisdom of God doesn't only have a vertical consequence. There are also horizontal consequences because the world was made by wisdom. Well, if the negative is true, if throwing off wisdom means that we have the potential to make a mess of our lives, well, then the opposite is also true. And that's Solomon's point here. Solomon is saying, look at creation. Look at its design, its beauty, its wonders. Look at it and see how it all pictures God's wisdom. When you look through the stars through a telescope, or when you see a cell through a microscope, you can see God's wisdom in action. And now Solomon says, God is offering to you his wisdom to now go and live in his created world. I think J.R.R. Tolkien had a great phrase. He described us as sub-creators. God is the ultimate creator, but then he makes us to be sub-creators. We are his creatures made to reflect his image here on Earth. And as such, he's given us roles and responsibilities and callings. And he's called us to be fruitful in those callings. What are some of the callings we have? Well, some of us are pastors and elders, deacons. We're fathers, mothers, children, grandparents, employees. I'm sure there are more. We all have different callings and God has made us and he's placed us in this world to be fruitful in our callings. But the only thing that unites us, we're not only united that we have callings, another thing that we have in common is that we all struggle with our callings, don't we? I can tell you for a fact there isn't a person in this room who doesn't on some level struggle with their particular calling. Mothers struggle to balance all of their responsibilities in the home with their children. Mothers and fathers struggle to balance their work-life balance. In all of our callings we struggle as we try to live fruitfully before the Lord and yet we find ourselves falling short. We struggle with our finitude, where there's never enough time to do all that is required of us or to do it all well. We struggle with our fallenness, where some days we don't feel like getting out of bed. We struggle with desire and right motives in doing our duties. But what is the promise that wisdom holds out to us? It is that you can be fruitful in your calling God says you can be fruitful in your service to me with the same wisdom by which I created the world. He's saying if the Lord created the world, if by his wisdom he separated the waters and set the earth on its foundations and placed the stars and planets in their places, think of what my wisdom, God says, can accomplish in your life. If wisdom in the hands of God can accomplish so much and be so fruitful, will it not also be fruitful in your life, dear believer, as he hands wisdom to you and as you seek it, find it, and obtain it? Think even this week, how will wisdom be manifested in your life? May God give you understanding to rightly value wisdom above everything else. May he give you the grace to hold fast to eternal life that wisdom offers through Jesus Christ. And may he empower you to live wisely in this world and before his face. Let's pray. O Lord, we come before you confessing that we are a people who are aware of our folly and our lack of wisdom. We are aware of our shortcomings, and we come before you as those eager to receive your word and to receive from your hand the blessings of wisdom. Lord, you promise that all who call out for wisdom will be given that very thing. And so, Lord, would you bless us with greater wisdom and knowledge that we might live in this world and in this life in service to you until the day of our final breath when we will be with you in paradise. And finally, that wonderful day when we will taste and see of that wonderful tree of life in the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ. Keep us until that day. Make us fruitful, in Jesus' name, amen.