Turn with me, please, in your scriptures to Proverbs chapter 2. As you're turning, let me put you in remembrance of what we have seen in our recent study just prior to this passage. Last week we examined wisdom's accusations and assurances Wisdom's accusations were in the midst of descriptions of dire consequences. Wisdom had sought out the simple, the scorner, the fool, to give them wisdom, but they refused. Indeed, wisdom charges that the overwhelming response to her call is rejection. When terror, despair, anguish and destruction come as a result of this rejection, then it will be too late to find wisdom. Now, in that condition, in that desperation, they will call for wisdom, but wisdom who had previously called to them will not respond. Now, that great need is frighteningly experienced by them, they suddenly have diligence. They desperately desire wisdom. But wisdom, who had eagerly sought them before, will not be found. Indeed, this is certainly part of the sense of that laughter and mockery from wisdom that they experience. When one desperately needs something that is just out of reach, there is sometimes a sense in the midst of deep frustration that this is almost laughable. The situation itself seems almost a mockery of that great need. So it is for those who rejected wisdom. Before, wisdom was persistently held out and seemed readily available. But for the fool, he had no interest at that time. Now, that one desperately needs that wisdom, it's no longer available. And The one in such desperate need was warned that this would happen. Oh, the depth of the justice here. Oh, the sense of desperation. Wisdom's accusations. are then detailed in the passage we studied last week. Hating knowledge, rejecting the fear of the Lord, refusing counsel, despising rebuke. These things bear a bitter fruit for the simple and the fool. Remember that the words that were used there, that they experience the fruit of their own fancies. the word the fancies there means that they did as they pleased. They took their own advice and the fruit of that now is bitter. And they have prepared it for themselves. The meandering of the simple and the self-satisfaction of the fool will bring death and destruction. They were warned, but persisted and brought death and destruction upon themselves, the fruit of their own hands. And with that, wisdom gives one last assurance that we heard last week. Here, wisdom and these judgments will be avoided. Listen, heed, and this won't fall upon you. If you will listen to wisdom, what's held out? safety, security, absence of fear. And so, wisdom personified, having laid out those accusations and judgments and then hoping, as it were, that we are rightly fearful of such a demise. Wisdom holds out that encouragement. Hear and heed, then this won't happen. You'll have safety, security, and absence of fear. And having finished that extended instruction through wisdom personified, in this text before us this afternoon, we have the return of the voice of a loving father. Let's stand and hear these beautiful words. and instructive words. Attend carefully to this sacred poetry as the father now returns to instructing his son. Proverbs chapter two, verses one through five. My son, if you receive my words and treasure my commands within you so that you incline your ear to wisdom and apply your heart to understanding. Yes, if you cry out for discernment and lift up your voice for understanding, if you seek her as silver and search for her as for hidden treasures, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God. Let us pray. Most Holy Father, give us this wisdom. Give us this heart, we ask, Enlighten us from the light of your word for the glory of Christ. We pray it in his name. Amen. You may be seated. We have set before us here in the instructions of a loving father just what a true desire for wisdom is like. Here we have the true desire for wisdom. The warnings that were given through wisdom personified were frightening. But the assurance at the end was warm. Now the loving father brings the lesson home and applies it to the son he loves, guiding him towards wisdom. The father describes to his son what is necessary in the pursuit of wisdom if wisdom is to be found. has shown that the problem we have in acquiring godly wisdom is that we don't want it. We naturally wander in our ignorance and perish in foolish, self-satisfied complacency. Remember that that was the charge of wisdom. Wisdom cried out, but then says, no one listens, no one heeds. Life-fulfilling and life-sustaining wisdom from God will not come to us then accidentally. What is necessary for us to escape our natural self-destructive ignorance and foolishness is described here through the words of a loving father. And so, even from our own heavenly father, there is an attitude and approach A heart and habit, a mentality and method that is necessary if wisdom is to be found. Do we truly desire wisdom? Not naturally. Not ordinarily in our fallen condition. But if we are to have wisdom, we must have a diligent desire for it. God our Father teaches us here how we must pursue wisdom and what the fruit of that pursuit will be. And so first, how must we pursue wisdom? What does this true diligence look like? Well, we are given this instruction through a series of couplets. God has given us poetry so that we will lay a more firm grasp upon this instruction. And so, let's hear these couplets. The first one given to us is that we must receive and treat as treasure. There's a receiving and a treasuring described. Those words of instruction from the father are what must be received. The idea here in that word to receive is a laying hold of what is said, taking it in, paying attention. This describes a readiness and eagerness in receiving. And it is to be considered a treasure. And what is to be treasured? The commands. Literally, as the authorized version has it, we're to hide what we receive in our heart. That's what it means for us to treasure it. To take it in and keep it as something very valuable that we're storing up. So, it's not simply hearing. paying attention. It's not simply the receiving, that's necessary, but also hearing eagerly and treasuring what is heard as something of great value. Now note, these are by implication the commands spoken of from God. The father is saying to the son, hear what I'm saying and treasure my commands. But we know that this is modeled for us as our Heavenly Father giving us His commands, and we are to treasure them. Is this how we attend to the word of our Heavenly Father? If we are to have the Father's wisdom, this is a non-negotiable. We must receive it by eagerly hearing, and we must treasure it. Children, young people, Is this how you heed your parents? You see, the modeling given here in the poetry, the sacred poetry of a parent teaching a child is not accidental. There is a place where we learn this way of hearing, this eager attention that treasures the words given. Children, young people, we're disinclined to do it when we're supposed to. It is in our youth that we're most inclined to stop paying attention when daddy runs on and on about what was wrong and what should have been done right. When mom tells us to do this or to do that, these are occasions for practice. So that when we reach young adulthood and are still a child in the home, we have exercised ourselves in the discipline of soul to hear and not just to put up with. No, we're to hear and treasure what mom and dad say. Is that how we listen to mom and dad? This is practice for how to hear, heed, and treasure what God says to us authoritatively from his word preached and read. Children. Are you practicing that? Are you cultivating that? When your mommy and daddy speak, do you hear to pay attention diligently, and do you discipline your heart to attend to what mom and dad say with affection? You treasure it. That's not natural to us, and indeed, isn't that exactly what wisdom said? No one listens. We don't want to end in destruction. Children, young people, practice now in the place God puts you for that practice. what mummy and daddy say, receive their commands and treasure them. Parents, are we diligent to give wise words that convey not our own arbitrary will, but God's will? Not every instruction rises to that critical level, but all our instruction to our children ought to be given in a way that is in keeping with this aim. so that our children can hear through our words a loving Heavenly Father nurturing and guiding in a path of wisdom? Do we make that our aim as parents, as adults? Are we teaching and instructing our children with godly wisdom that inspires loving respect? Now note also not only that modeling here and how we should take that so seriously and understand the training that goes into receiving our Heavenly Father's commands and treasuring them, but notice what the Holy Spirit did in the sacred poetry here. There's an intensifying. We go from hearing to treasuring, from hearing words to not just any words, but commands. That's on purpose. That's the way these couplets will work through the rest of this passage. What's the next couplet? Look at the text. Incline and apply. Incline your ear to wisdom. Now, we've gone from simply hearing now to leaning in. It's literally like picking up the ear. It's intensified. Not just hear with eagerness, but lean in to hear. Pay careful attention. The intensifying is on purpose here. If we're to have wisdom, we must have an ever-increasing earnest attention to the word of God. Apply your heart to understanding. Incline and apply. Apply your heart to understanding. The idea here is working this that we hear, that we've leaned into to hear, working it into our thinking so that it is on the mind. and is now a part of the soul to spread it upon the heart to get it into the thinking. Apply the heart to understanding. This intensifying is not just now leaning in, but getting it and working it into the heart so that the heart now thinks those things that were heard. What's the next couplet? cry out and lift up the voice. Note that these are the very words that were used of wisdom personified in the previous passage. Wisdom cried out vigorously. It's the same term. Wisdom lifted up the voice out of an eager investment in the valuable treasure she had to give. We, in seeking wisdom, are to match that intensity. in crying out, in lifting up the voice. But when we cry out for discernment and lift up the voice for understanding, applying the heart to wisdom, and applying wisdom to the heart, are we so eager? Are we filled with such vigor that there is a readiness to cry out? And to whom should we cry out and how? Wisdom cried out as it were to us. Turn in here to heed, learn from me. We are to respond with crying out at the same intensity because there is something of great value here. But to whom should we cry? Well, this speaks to us of prayer for wisdom. When we desire wisdom rightly, it should move us to cry out to God in earnest meditative prayer. We should be examining the heart, considering the life, hearing the call of wisdom from God. We should see our desperate need of that wisdom. It should move us to cry out earnestly for wisdom. Now, I dare say we're more likely simply to say it in passing. God, give me wisdom, and move on. Now, such prayers are acceptable prayers when sincere. Yes, let's pray that. Let's pray that in passing. Yes, let's always pray with all prayer, including, Lord, please give me wisdom. But what's called for here, if we actually earnestly desire wisdom, is a meditative concentration upon the desperate need I have that causes me to Pour out my heart's desire for wisdom that matches the intensity of wisdom's cry to me. Wisdom's crying out for us to hear and heed should be matched with our crying out to God. Give that wisdom to me, most holy Lord. The true desire for wisdom will move us to a vigorous devotion in prayer a meditation upon our desperate need that is lifted up in longing to the Lord. As Charles Bridges says, but there must be an active, practical habit of attention. Ear and heart must unite. Yet to incline ear and apply the heart, who is sufficient for these things? So it should move us to prayer. Oh my God, let it be thine own work On me, in me, thou alone canst do it. So ought our hearts to cry for wisdom. If we are to find wisdom, we must be devoted regularly to meditative, longing prayer for God to bestow it. It's his work. We won't have it by accident. And we won't have it if we're careless. So we are to cry out, to lift up the voice, the fourth couplet, seek and search. This prayer moves us to yet greater intensity in our quest for wisdom. In full reliance upon God's provision, we are not to be complacent, but rather, as the miner digging for silver ore, and the adventurer searching diligently for riches of hidden treasure. So we are to pursue, fueled by prayer, the receiving of wisdom. Prayer then moves us to that great intensity of seeking and searching. And where does this poetry point us? Where do we seek and search? for this great treasure of wisdom. Well, remember Christ in responding to those who sought inappropriately in John 5. Do you remember when Pastor Gary taught us there? John 5, verse 39. You search the scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life, and these are they which testify of me. but you are not willing to come to me that you may have life. Isn't that just the word of God incarnate describing exactly what wisdom and now a loving father have described? Wisdom is to be found in an earnest search. Where? The scriptures. Why? Because that's where Christ who is the embodiment of wisdom is to be found. And what's the problem? We don't want it. We don't want him. Let's step back to the previous couple. God, help us. God, help us to long and love for the wisdom that is in Christ Jesus. We don't naturally want it. We need the change of heart that we should longingly cry for in the pursuit of wisdom. The scriptures are the place for this eager digging. And so we've worked through those first four couplets. There's one now that describes for us the reward. What is the reward of this true diligent pursuit of wisdom? Then, if you have done what I've described, son, that I love, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God. One last rewarding couplet. Understand and find. Diligence of the sort described here will not be disappointed. It will be rewarded. And what is the reward? What is this great treasure for which we must cry out and exert ourselves diligently like someone digging for silver ore to have great treasures? We will understand the fear of the Lord. Here is the sure foundation for wholeness in soul and body in the service of our loving Savior. Wholeness in soul and body before the face of God. A right reverence for the true God. And remember what we were taught. That is the necessary platform upon which wisdom is built. And so, the second part of the couplet. And the greatest treasure found upon the platform of the fear of the Lord is that we will know God. We will find the knowledge of God. Now, let's ask the question, is that the treasure we're after? Do we long for that more than anything? Is it our vigorous pursuit and the longing for it? Does it drive us to earnest meditative prayer? Because this is true treasure, to be in a right and reverent disposition before the one that I long to know. One author commenting on this passage says, we have presented before us here in this beautiful poetry, the two great poles of biblical piety. awe and intimacy. Think about that. Those two coming together are the whole of the pious Christian life, right reverence for the true God, awe, that leads not to being pushed away, but leads to intimacy, truly knowing God. Here is wisdom. Do we want it? What does that look like? It looks like what we just described from this loving Father. So we need to examine our hearts and we need to pray through this passage. Do we hear and treasure? Do we lean in eagerly to that hearing and not just hide up but apply to the heart so that it comes into my thinking continually Do we seek and search with eagerness as for great wealth? Are we then, with that center couplet, moved to prayer, seeing what we lack? And so moved to prayer, let us lay hold of the promise of God. We've been instructed that the answers may not always look like what we think they should look like. Rest assured, the deeper the longing, the more the awe of God and the intimacy of the knowledge of our Savior. Let us ask for that now. Let us pray. Great God and merciful Father, We can see ourselves in all that was described before. We are lax, we are complacent, self-satisfied. When we examine the longings of our heart, we confess the top of the list is not the fear of the Lord. The top of the list is not that beautiful knowledge of your holiness. Give us the longing for awe and for intimacy, that we may cry out for it, and so be moved to a true diligence in the pursuit of wisdom, that it will be rewarded. We ask these things, that we may have much of Christ. It is in his name and for his glory we pray. Amen.