We are continuing in our study of wisdom as we find those lessons set before us by Solomon, the inspiration of the spirit, in the Book of Proverbs. Solomon introduces the study and pursuit of wisdom through the first nine chapters of the Book of Proverbs, but he gives, as it were, an introduction to the introduction in the first seven verses of Proverbs. And we are unpacking that as we looked last week at forming a definition of wisdom and asking the question why we should pursue it. We'll continue to be instructed by the Spirit through Solomon in his introduction to the introduction here in these opening verses. Let's stand together and hear them. Verses one through seven of the first chapter of the book of Proverbs. This is God's holy word, let us hear and heed. Proverbs chapter one, verse one. The Proverbs of Solomon, the son of David, king of Israel. To know wisdom and instruction, to perceive the words of understanding, to receive the instruction of wisdom, justice, judgment, and equity. To give prudence to the simple, to the young man knowledge and discretion. A wise man will hear and increase learning, and a man of understanding will attain wise counsel. To understand a proverb and an enigma, the words of the wise and their riddles. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction. Let's ask God's blessing on this word. Great God and merciful Father, bless to us this word. As you increase our understanding, give us wisdom, we pray. In Christ's name and for his glory, amen. Last week, we examined more directly, as we mentioned, that definition of wisdom. We looked at the broader context in the time of the writing of this book, those portions that were later gathered as Solomon had much to give by way of wisdom and teaching wisdom. We discovered that wisdom was highly valued throughout the ancient Near East. and that there was a thriving international interest in pursuing, acquiring, and using wisdom. Part of the reason for that high value placed upon wisdom was its intensely practical nature, guiding words and actions with success because of its subtle depth of insight. We saw that wisdom could be given as an extraordinary gift, as it was in the case of Solomon, but as Solomon suggests, Here, it can also be taught requiring, of those who will learn it, aptitude, skill, and diligence. Solomon notes that wisdom requires careful observation and perceptiveness. We saw further that the ultimate source of wisdom is found in God, and he has embedded that wisdom in his created order, considered both practically and morally. So we offered a definition of wisdom that sought to embrace those important aspects of what wisdom is with these words. Wisdom is recognizing and understanding God's created order so that we honor him and his design by how we live in his world. And as we work through Solomon's instruction this afternoon, we'll offer even a little more refinement to that definition. And finally, we considered why we should pursue wisdom. Considering what it is, we recognize that we ought to pursue wisdom precisely because God calls us to, but he calls us to insofar as, well, as forming in us the character and mind of Christ. In Christ are hidden all the treasures of the wisdom of God. And as we are to be conformed to His image, we are to pursue wisdom. He is full of the wisdom of God. And so our calling in being like Christ is to pursue wisdom. It's a special calling of God's people. Ours is not primarily the self-centered and ultimately failing effort that the worldly may have in seeking out that perceptive insight into how things work. This will not succeed in bringing glory to God or really furthering the flourishing of those who seek it for such self-centered reasons. Christians, in the life of cultivating Christ's character inwardly, and expressing Christian virtue outwardly will have a true and virtuous pursuit, a wholehearted and lifelong pursuit of divine wisdom, as we see it shining from the character and wisdom of our Savior. Now we turn, then, having considered what wisdom is and why we should pursue it, to a larger category, perhaps, of how we should seek wisdom and pursue it. And first, in considering how we should pursue wisdom, Solomon provides for us, as it were, a cast of characters in these opening verses. There are descriptions of individuals and key terms that are directly related to the pursuit of wisdom. But there is a bit of a problem with trying to define them. As commentators will note, these terms, though used frequently throughout the Proverbs and Wisdom literature, they're notoriously difficult to define. And part of that reason is that they are used poetically. Now, that's not an oversight on God's part. It's actually accenting part of what it means to pursue wisdom. There is a poetic structure and a parallelism that will intentionally stretch the meaning of words. Poetry does that, and God is doing that in his wisdom literature intentionally, making us think harder, considering overlaps of ideas. Poetry, especially Hebrew poetry, is well designed to do that. But a result is that there are not always hard and fast edges to the definitions of the terms we find here. Nevertheless, we can give at least a rough sketch of this cast of characters as Solomon lists them and some of the terms he uses in this introduction to the introduction. So, let's begin considering those first. Knowledge and understanding. Knowledge and understanding. These two terms are continually used in close relation with each other, as wisdom is described. A key to having wisdom is this knowledge and this understanding. Again, the edges are not sharp on these terms, they seem to have in view the raw material of facts and details, insights, relationships and roles, circumstances and situations which are necessary for wise assessment and action. Knowledge and understanding is accumulating, with proper perception, the raw data by which we should cultivate wisdom. knowledge and understanding seems to have to do with that raw data. So obviously we can understand. We're going to need to be observing. We're going to need to have an eye towards understanding and seeing what those circumstances are so that we can use those things in the pursuit of wisdom. He also mentions instruction. Verse 2, to know wisdom and instruction. This word carries the sense of discipline or correction, both positive and negative. So that instruction has that in view, this discipline or correction. This has the idea, at times, of punishment, to bring about moral guidance. So instruction corrects, gets us on the right path, and we must be corrected if we're to have a right attention to knowledge and understanding and use it rightly. We can't be left to ourselves. In the pursuit of wisdom, we'll need instruction that has this sense of discipline or correction. He also lists prudence and discretion. This describes the ability to plan a course of action in pursuit of a goal and can be used in either a negative or positive sense. Someone may exercise prudence, but in a wrong pursuit, making plans and having discretion, discernment, to do something you ought not to do. But in the pursuit of wisdom, clearly, it would have in view pursuing a plan of action to a good end. Prudence, especially, carries the idea of careful consideration and reasoned insight. That's prudence, at least in the rough shape of that term as it's used in the wisdom literature. Prudence carries the idea of careful consideration and reasoned insight. Discretion carries the idea of that discernment and differentiating between a way that would be fruitful and a way that would be unfruitful, a right way and a wrong way. This is what's described in discretion. It's that kind of discernment. Solomon also mentions in the cast of characters, one who is simple. The person who is untaught is who is meant. One who is naive, he is the one described as simple. It carries with it the idea of youth, a simplicity that is due to immaturity, the need for further training. One who has not been trained, is simple. He's naive. He's untaught. He lacks the maturity that comes with that training and is described as simple. And so it's not intended to be an insult unless it's true of one who really ought to have already been trained. That one is a simpleton. But one who is simply simple is one who yet needs training. He may be youthful and simply needs guidance. And he also mentions here in the cast of characters the wise man. This wise man is one who hears fruitfully. He's one for whom it is true that if he's hearing, he's learning. He never is on cruise control. The wise man is perpetually increasing his wisdom precisely because He's always tuned in so that he will learn. His wisdom is perpetually increasing. He is skilled in that understanding we mentioned. He can accumulate the information necessary to do something fruitful with it. The wise man increases learning, and as a result, will increase in his wisdom. This reminds us of a similar principle in the parable of the sower that we find in Matthew 13. It's not identical, but similar. You can reference Matthew 13, verses 10 through 17, and then 34 and 35. Read that this afternoon. Another member of the cast of characters Solomon mentions is the fool. He says in verse 7, fools despise wisdom and instruction. Now, this term has no good in it. Unlike the simple, the fool is blameworthy. It's essentially a thoroughly unteachable person who simply rejects wisdom out of hand. The fool is one who is thoroughly unteachable and simply rejects wisdom out of hand. Now, there are several terms used that are translated as fool. Some refer to the obstinate, self-guided, perspective someone might have. Such a person is a fool. He depends only upon himself for all that he will do in making a decision, in pursuing a course in life. He won't be taught. He is obstinate in being self-guided. This leads to consistently wrong decisions. Another term used describes the fool as one who has moral deficiency. It's displayed, especially in his lack of self-control. The fool, in this sense, is one who is constantly uncontrolled. Words are always blurted out. If he's upset, he rages. He acts out everything that's on the inside, outwardly, without maintaining himself. Such a one is a fool. And a third term that's used is one that was used for the name of a man. His name was Fool, and it was an evolve in 1 Samuel 25, verse 17. It describes exactly what this man was like, disgracefully and arrogantly disrespectful. You can see the kind of shallow self-centeredness that goes with the term fool in all of those various senses. Now, as we've looked at the cast of characters, we've unpacked some of the terms used in the description of our pursuit of wisdom. In verse 6, there's something that helps us bring a little more refinement to our definition. And it's a little surprising to see. We'd like wisdom and the pursuit of wisdom to be simply cut and dry, right? Tell me what wisdom is, I memorize that, and I do it. Wisdom just isn't like that at all, and Solomon chases that misconception away very powerfully in verse six. When he describes what the pursuit of wisdom is like, he says it's to understand And here are these terms about wisdom and the pursuit of wisdom. It's to understand a proverb and an enigma, the words of the wise and their riddles. That makes it sound pretty tough. There's a wide range of nuance to these terms, but generally, as Solomon lists these out, it's referring to the various forms of wisdom literature. They point to that wisdom literature as having a subtlety. And there's a need for us to be flexible in catching the indirection in the communication of wisdom. Remember, we mentioned that's true of poetry, and that's the form God chose primarily to communicate wisdom. There's an indirection. There's a subtlety. There is a need to have skill and aptitude and depth of consideration to unpack what's going on when wisdom is delivered to us by the wise. Wisdom is more than simply learning facts. It is more like, in fact, an art. And what we mean by that, you may remember the example we used a couple years ago when we spoke of this. The pursuit of wisdom and attaining wisdom is not simply memorizing facts. It's more like an art. And it's the art that we might describe as one who is pursuing the status of a master. Think of a master builder as an example. I mentioned before, and I think it helps us see the difference between that simple and simplistic approach we wish we could pursue and what the pursuit of wisdom really requires. It requires us to become journeymen in the pursuit of mastery. And that's going to require a perceptiveness to things that you can't simply list out as rules. A master builder is like that. If you look at a building that was built by and under the direction of a master builder, you will be able to tell that it was so, especially if you were to compare it to a building that, oh, say, I built following directions I got off the internet. It may be the same set of plans. It will look nothing the same as what the master builder could produce. We may have the same set of plans, the same raw material, But there is a mastery, an art, a wisdom that that master builder has that I don't have. It'll show. It's also true, I gave another example, in the skill and the ability of a master chef. There are popular chef shows, and they make it look busy, difficult, but doable. Right? You need a recipe, and you can do this thing, right? Oh, and they have catastrophes happen, and it messes them up. But there's really more to it than that. A master chef has a sensibility, a skill, a nuance to the understanding of that recipe that you'll be able to taste if you compare the product of the master chef to what I'd produce going off the same recipe. You wouldn't want what I made. You'd want what the master chef made. But we had the same recipe, the same raw materials, right? This gets to what is involved in the pursuit of wisdom. It's not just following a list of rules. It is developing that perceptiveness that is more like an art. so that skill is acquired through experience, through instruction, that moves one from the journeyman to one who is a master. Certainly, there must be a grasp of facts and rules in the pursuit of wisdom. But there is also a skillful discernment and understanding of a host of subtle details, together with a knowledge of how to deal with those details in such a way as becomes manifest in the final product. So it is with a master builder. So it is with a master chef. And so as we prepare ourselves Receiving instruction from a master of wisdom, so gifted powerfully by the Holy Spirit, we're going to need to take up a lifelong pursuit for mastery. We're going to seek to prepare for an apprenticeship. We're going to come under the instruction with the understanding, I have a long way to go. I'm going to apply myself to this continually. I'm going to seek advancement from apprenticeship to journeyman, and finally begin to show mastery of wisdom as we see it revealed in Christ, as his character is formed in us. Let us consider, as we prepare for this apprenticeship, those cast of characters Solomon gave us. And we should ask ourselves, where do we find ourselves there? If we find that we're anyway described in the way the fool is described, well then let us repent. We'll not learn wisdom if we find ourselves in that place. Rather, we may need training. We may yet be simple. Perhaps we shouldn't be. Again, we can beseech God his mercy and pursue wisdom in the pursuit the character of our Savior, the mind of our Creator and Redeemer, so that we may live in this world for His glory. So we may refine that definition by saying it's not just the pursuit, it's the art of that pursuit. There's a depth, there's a subtlety. Poetry reveals that. Solomon reveals that when he says, that the pursuit of wisdom involves understanding a proverb and an enigma, something that's hidden, the words of the wise and their riddles, things that we have to work to understand. Let us ask God to grant to us the diligence and the preparation for our apprenticeship in His school of wisdom. Let's pray. Most Holy Father, we ask Of you, wisdom. We're assured by James that you will get it, but we know that it's not on our terms. You will bless us because you're determined to grow us in the grace of our Savior, that we may be like Him. And He is full of wisdom. So, Father, Give us ears to hear, give us eyes to see. Teach us that we may grow in wisdom. Bring us to mastery that we may shine with the glory of our Savior and present a mastery that shows we have been trained indeed by His Spirit. We ask these things for His glory, for His honor. Amen.