True Wisdom 39:51

Welcome to Gospel and Life. There are lots of things the Bible is pretty clear about. Don't steal, for instance, or don't commit adultery. But no single Bible verse will tell you exactly whom to marry, which job to take, whether to move or stay put. We need God's wisdom to make good decisions in every part of our lives. Join us today as Tim Keller explores how we can cultivate wisdom with God at the center of all life's choices.

This morning's scripture reading comes from Proverbs 8:10-16, then verses 22-31. "Take my instruction instead of silver, and knowledge rather than choice gold. For wisdom is better than jewels, and all that you may desire cannot compare with her. I, wisdom, dwell with prudence, and I find knowledge and discretion. The fear of the Lord is hatred of evil.

Pride and arrogance and the way of evil and perverted speech I hate. I have counsel and sound wisdom. I have insight. I have strength. By me, kings reign and rulers decree what is just. By me, princes rule and nobles, all who govern justly. The Lord possessed me at the beginning of his work, the first of his acts of old. Ages ago, I was set up at the first, before the beginning of the earth."

when there were no depths i was brought forth when there were no springs abounding with water before the mountains had shape before the hills i was brought forth before he had made the earth and its fields or the first of the dust of the world

When he established the heavens, I was there. When he drew a circle on the face of the deep, when he made firm the skies above, when he established the fountains of the deep, when he assigned to the sea its limit so that the waters might not transgress his command, when he marked out the foundations of the earth, then I was beside him like a master workman and I was daily his delight.

rejoicing before him always, rejoicing in his inhabited world and delighting in the children of man. This is God's word.

Now, we live in a pluralistic society, and in a pluralistic society, people are always fighting about morality. They're fighting about the different moral sensibilities we have about what is good and what is bad and what is right and what is wrong, and I guess that fighting is inevitable, but probably it means it obscures for us something that many ancient societies, I think, had a better grasp of. Ancient societies usually had more consensus in the society about morality, right?

But partly because of that, I think they saw something. That is, moral standards, as important and as crucial as they are, actually don't address most of the situations that you face. See, whatever you think the rules are, whatever you think the rules are, no matter what you think they are, the vast majority of situations you actually face aren't covered by those rules.

If you're not going to make an absolute mess of your life, if you're going to make it through life, you need something that we hardly talk about today. Because, you know, the secular culture talks about science and facts. And the moral communities, you know, like the churches and synagogues and all that, talk about morality. But actually what we need is something that's hardly talked about at all nowadays, which is not identical to knowledge, and it's not identical even to moral goodness, wisdom.

You're going to make an absolute muck of your life if you don't find, grow in wisdom. And there's no better place than to go to the book of Proverbs, which we're going to go to for weeks this year. And as an introduction to the book, we're looking at this chapter 8, which as we go through it, we will see, shows us the importance of wisdom, the definition of wisdom, the problem of wisdom, and a clue to its solution.

The importance, the definition, the problem, and the clue to the solution. All right, first, start at the top. First three verses tell us the importance of wisdom. And look at the comparison. Look at the progression. Wisdom is speaking, and wisdom says, I am more important than silver, than gold, than jewels. And then, finally, wisdom gets all the way down to greater than anything you may desire.

Now here, let me put this in a nutshell. This is saying wisdom is infinitely more important than all the wealth and all the fame and all the power in the world. It is far more important, far more important than the greatest of circumstances is the ability to grow and handle and flourish life circumstances, whatever they are. Right? Why? See, having great life circumstances, fame and fortune and power and happiness and

is nowhere near as important as having wisdom, the ability to handle and grow and flourish in life circumstances no matter what they are. Why? Because only a tiny minority of people ever get their life circumstances where they want them and no one at all keeps them there. Wisdom is infinitely more important than all the fame and looks and good circumstances possible. You know this. There are lots of people who have talent, intellect, charisma,

credentials, beauty, and they've gone nowhere or maybe even their lives have unraveled and other people who have little talent and intellect and credentials and beauty and charisma have done very, very well. What's the difference? Wisdom. Why would it be so important to get wisdom? Because the reason you have to think about it, the reason you have to set your mind to it is because, and I don't think this is very well known in the church in particular, but certainly not in our culture,

is wisdom is not the same thing as moral goodness. It's not identical to it. It's related to it, but it's not identical to it. Obviously, by the way, to be unethical is stupid in the long run. Even the business schools will tell you that all the time. You know, the business schools will say, be ethical, because in the long run, it's smart. So obviously, wisdom is not less, being less than ethical, but it's far more. For example...

if you want to help a poor family out of poverty. That's good. That's noble. That's right. And you can do it completely ethically and still ruin their lives because you are not conversant with the complexities of how poverty actually works. It's extremely important. It's not enough to be people of vision. It's not enough to be people of principle. It's not enough to be people even of high principle.

You've got to be people of wisdom or you're going to ruin your life and the lives of the people around you. And another reason why it's so important to get wisdom is the frequency with which we need it. I've already alluded to this, but let me press it home a little bit. Many decisions, in order to make them well, only require knowledge. If you had all the knowledge, you could choose the right car, maybe the right medicine, something like that. And other decisions are mainly a matter of your principles and your commitments. But the vast majority of the decisions we actually face

The rules and the facts won't help you. Who do you marry? Do you get married? Who should you date? Do you break up? What career should you go into? What school should you go to? Should I stay here? Should I go to another job? Should I move here? Should I move there? Should I confront the person or should I hold back? Should I take the risk or should I play it safe? And do you realize a wrong decision in any of those things is a disaster and yet the rules don't cover them

Whatever you think the moral rules are, they don't cover them. And knowledge isn't enough. And we live in a culture that on the one hand, you've got the scientific secular culture that thinks that science, scientific expertise will give you all the answers. It doesn't give the answers on any of those things. Most of the things you need. And there's, of course, people in the church and people, you know, the moral people who say morality is important. Of course it's important. It's absolutely crucial. But it doesn't help you on these areas.

I would like to suggest that a lot of you today the reason you are have that sick sinking feeling in your stomach about your life is Because you know you're in a situation that you don't have the wisdom to address. That's the problem It's not just it's not a matter so much of Knowledge or smarts or moral rectitude. It's it's you don't have the wisdom. We're perishing for lack of wisdom So you see the importance of wisdom

Wisdom is infinitely more important than all the silver, all the gold, all the jewels, and all you could even imagine does not even compare to her. So, okay, then now let's move on. What's the definition? That's the importance of it. What's the definition of it? Well, we've already kind of hinted at it, but in verses 12 to 16, let's move on down the passage. Let's move on down the text. If you move on, you'll see there's a lot of synonyms. And if you read the whole book of Proverbs, you'll find that these synonyms continually come up.

Again, here's wisdom speaking and wisdom's, I, wisdom, dwell with prudence. I dwell with, I have insight and so on. Many of these words, Hebrew words, are important synonyms used throughout the book to give us perspectives on wisdom. Let me give you three. First of all, notice it says wisdom has insight, verse 14, and that's the Hebrew word bina, which actually would mean knowing how things really work, knowing how things really happen.

Then secondly, it says, I wisdom dwell with prudence. Now, that's not the best English translation. But anyway, here's a word that means to notice little distinctions, which means wisdom is knowing how things really are. So, for example, Sherlock Holmes walks into a room and it's all a mess. And you and I look around and say, it's just a mess. But he sees clues. He sees little things, little things. You see a blur. He sees little distinctions. Did you see? It's that long, not that long. And suddenly he knows what really happened.

Wisdom is knowing how things really happen in the world, how things really work. And wisdom is, secondly, knowing how things really are, how things really work, how things really are. And lastly, by me, kings reign and rulers decree the right things. So wisdom is not just knowing how things really work and how things really are, but also what I should do about it.

And this is the reason why Gerhard von Rod, don't you love that word, that name? Gerhard von Rod, who wrote Wisdom in Israel, the greatest, I think, of all the scholarly books about the wisdom literature and wisdom in Israel. He wrote it quite a few years ago, but I don't think it's surpassed. This is his definition, according to Proverbs, of the term wisdom. Here it is. He says it's becoming competent with regard to the realities of life. Competence with regard to the realities of life.

Knowing how things really happen, knowing how things really are, and knowing what to do about it. And, and Funrod says elsewhere, he says, he says, though wise, the wise have knowledge, of course. And the wise have moral character, of course. But they also have a character of mind and heart so that they always do the right thing even when the rules don't apply. They do the right things even when the rules don't apply. That's

And you know, when you start to think about this, you realize, I haven't been working on that. I've been working on being good, and that's hard enough. Oh my gosh, I've got to be wise too. And yes, you do. The Bible continually talks and illustrates the importance and the nature of wisdom. Last year, we did a series on David, the story of David, the history of David.

And if it was such a long, there's so many passages in the Bible, I couldn't cover them all. One I didn't cover was this interesting one from 1 Samuel 15 to 17. It's about the time in which Absalom, David's adult son, had risen up and cast David out and had done a coup, a coup d'etat, and he had taken power in Jerusalem, and David had fled for his life into the wilderness with some of his friends. And one of David's counselors, Ahithophel,

decided to throw in his lot with Absalom and be Absalom's counselor. Now, Ahithophel was incredibly wise, unbelievably wise. And David knew he had no hope as long as Absalom had that kind of wisdom at his court.

So he came to Hushai, which was one of the guys who had fled in the wilderness with him and said, I'll tell you what, Hushai, go back to Absalom's court and make them believe that you're on his side and then do everything you can to overthrow the council of Ahithophel where I've got no chance. Such is the power of wisdom. So Hushai goes back and he ingratiates himself and gets into Absalom's trust. And so at one point, Absalom decides he's got to make a choice.

Is the decision to make the decision is not whether to go and capture or kill David. He knows he's got to do that Eventually, he's got a capture and kill David or he cannot have his own throne secure But the real question is when so he gets his counselors together and he says Should I go and attack David now or not and Ahithophel says yes now go while he's still in grief go while he's still on the run go while he's off balance and

Get him before he can get strategies together. Get him before he can consolidate his position. Go get him and the kingdom is yours. Capture or kill him. But Hushai says, wait. And Hushai appeals both to Absalom's fear and his vanity. To the fear he says, hey, wait a minute, wait a minute. Remember David? This is David and he's out there with his mighty men. Do you remember that he was out there for years? He's battle-hardened. He knows what he's doing. Saul couldn't catch him.

If you try to go out there and get him, he might kill you or even elude you. And if he eludes you and everybody knows you're after him, your poll numbers will sink. And he says, on the other hand, he goes to his vanity and he says, but you know what? You are popular. You're incredibly popular. Everybody loves you. Everybody. And if you just sit tight and you don't do anything stupid to hurt your poll numbers, they're just going to come to you anyway. The people will leave, David. He'll be left alone and then you can take him. And because he appealed to his vanity and because he appealed to his fear,

Absalom said, that's what I'm going to do. I'm not going to go now. No reason to make the risk. And the text says, when Ahithophel heard the decision, he saddled his donkey, he went home to his house, and he hanged himself. Why? Ahithophel knew, if you reject wisdom, you can keep disaster away for a while, but not forever. See, Ahithophel saw what had happened. Absalom, because he rejected God,

did not know who he really was. He had both a combination of inferiority feelings and superiority feelings. He had too little a view of his strength and he had too great a view of his glory. In other words, he didn't have an accurate view of who he was. And because he didn't have an accurate view of who he really was, he didn't choose his counselor's right. And because he didn't choose his counselor's right, he made the ultimate foolish move, and that is no time.

The right deed, the right word, the rightest deed, the rightest word at the wrong time will destroy everything. In the wrong order will destroy everything. And because he rejected God, he didn't know who he was because he didn't know who he was. He didn't choose his counselors wisely because he didn't choose his counselors wisely. He did things at the wrong time and everything was disaster. And Ahithophel said, there's no use waiting for it. You see the importance and the nature of wisdom.

Okay, so we see it. It's all right. Well, this is really something. I'm kind of glad, but not completely, that you've drawn my attention to it this morning. But I want you to see it's worse than you think. There's a great problem. There's a huge problem that we all have when it comes to getting wisdom. And it's one of the reasons why we don't have it like we should.

What is that problem? Well, let's keep moving down the passage. And the problem we see as you move down the passage and in verse 22 and following, this poem, and don't forget, all of Proverbs is poetry. It's all poetry. I mean, some of us English literary dunces don't, if it's not a rhyme, it doesn't seem like poetry, but this is poetry, okay? And in the poem, suddenly, and it's very, very vivid and very famous, wisdom speaks and says, I was with the Lord yesterday.

When the Lord made absolutely everything that was made. I was with the Lord when the Lord made absolutely everything that was made. Before the mountains, I was with him. Before the seas, I was with him. And when he made the sea and when he made the oceans, when he made human beings as well, not just the physical, but also the spiritual, when he made everything, I was there. He made everything with wisdom.

Now this summer I spent a great deal of time reading scholarly books on wisdom and proverbs across the spectrum. I try really hard, if I'm going to read scholarship, to read it across the spectrum of opinion and ideology too. And one thing they absolutely agreed on was something, was this, that this creation account is unique. It said, in Eastern societies, the material world was seen as basically an illusion. You know that. And therefore, the material world is kind of like an accident, or at least not the reality.

But interestingly enough, by the way, all Western cultures saw, in all of their creation accounts, they saw creation, the world, as a result of a power struggle. So whether you're going to the Old Norse or to the German or to the Sumerian or the Babylonian or the Egyptian or the Greek or the Roman, it doesn't matter. Always you have these accounts of some kind of battle between the gods or the gods and the giants or this god and that god and one kills the other god and then they create a house out of the, you know, they create a land out of his body and that sort of thing. Always a result of a power struggle.

Only here do we have an account of the world not being based on a random accident nor being based on a power struggle, but on wisdom. That here you have God in delight, the delight of an artist, the delight of an artist. In fact, you know the place where it says wisdom, I frolic. You know down here where it says, I rejoiced always before him? It's a Hebrew word, shakak, which means to frolic.

That in overwhelming joy, God designed the world to be a place of beauty and power and order and joy and peace.

Now, that's the reason why the sages of Israel, the sages of Israel, the wise of Israel, said that wisdom worked. Because if God created the world according to wisdom, then there's a fabric or there's a pattern to all of reality. It's not a random. It's not just hither and thither and yon. There's a fabric and there's a pattern to all of reality. And if wisdom made the world, then wisdom can perceive to a great degree that pattern and live in accordance with it and live therefore wisely. See? See?

So, for example, we all know that there is a fabric, there's a pattern to the physical reality. So, for example, aerodynamics. An object that obeys the fabric reality of aerodynamics will fly. But if it disregards the rules of aerodynamics that's in physical reality, it'll crash. Ah, says the sages, but that would mean...

that there's also a fabric pattern to relational reality, and if you don't live in accordance with it, your relationships will crash. And that means there's a fabric pattern to God's spiritual reality, and if you operate your heart or your conscience or your emotions or your hopes or your meaning in a way that's not in accord with that fabric pattern, your spiritual life will crash. Foolishness is going against the grain or the weave or the structure, the pattern that God put into creation, which always leads to breakdown.

In the midst of life's uncertainties, where do you turn for wisdom? The book of Proverbs is filled with wisdom to help guide us in all aspects of life. In Tim and Kathy Keller's devotional book, God's Wisdom for Navigating Life, you'll get a fresh, inspiring view of God's wisdom each day of the year from the book of Proverbs. This devotional book will help you unlock the wisdom within the poetry of Proverbs and guide you toward a new understanding of what it means to live the Christian life.

This resource is our thanks for your gift to help Gospel in Life share Christ's love with more people. You can request your copy of God's Wisdom for Navigating Life when you give today at gospelinlife.com slash give. That's gospelinlife.com slash give. Now, here's Tim Keller with the remainder of today's teaching. But now, there's two things, in order to be wise, you must know about these patterns, about the pattern. There's two things you must know

equally to be wise. And this is the reason why we have such a problem today. The first thing you have to admit and see is that there is a pattern, that there actually God has made the world, and therefore there is a pattern. There are principles by which life customarily works. And yet, on the other hand, you've got to see that you cannot know it all, that it's largely hidden from you. What's so significant about those two things? Let me show you.

When you read through the book of Proverbs, you get through chapters 1 to 9, it's like the introduction. But in chapter 10 and following, that's when you actually get the Proverbs proper. That is those little pithy Proverbs, one every verse. Hundreds and hundreds and hundreds. If you're a pastor preparing to preach on it in the summer, hundreds and hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of them. But in chapters 10 to 15, what's interesting is you see the principles by which life normally works. They lay them out. And here's what they say.

If you work hard, you'll prosper. If you're lazy, you'll be poor. If you live according to moral absolutes, your life will go well. If you live a wicked life, your life won't go well. If you raise a child according to this pattern, if you raise a child rightly, when she is old, she'll love you and be a responsible adult. And if you have a conservative mindset, if you have a kind of conservative bent of mind, you read chapters 10 to 15 and you say, yeah, that's what I'm talking about.

If you work hard, you'll be okay. If you're lazy, you'll be poor. Yeah. Then, and I see no one does, I never did this in my life before, confessions. You always dip in and get this little gem out and that little gem out. But if you're actually reading through it the way it was written, then you get to chapter 16 and suddenly you begin to see exceptions to those things which look, to those principles of how life customarily works. So for example, it says,

Some people there are a number of problems that says some people who live according to God's moral absolutes have a lousy life And then it says some people that though they work hard they stay poor because of oppression and then it says Some people raise their child just right and when she grows old she goes off the rails and you read through it and you start and you know if you have a if you have a liberal Temperament you read that and you say yeah

Yeah, life's messy. I always said that. You can't be predicting everything like this. Ah, but get this. What is wisdom? If you will not admit that there is a pattern you have to submit to, if you want to make up all your rules, if you say, I want to determine what's right or wrong for me, you're being a fool. But if you think you can see the whole pattern, if you think you can understand the whole pattern, you're a fool.

You can be a liberal fool or a conservative fool. You can be a relativistic fool or you can be a moralistic fool, and we all are one or the other by ideology and temperament. If you want a perfect example of the conservative fools, look at the book of Job, his friends, remember? Job is suffering. Everything's gone wrong. His life has fallen apart. His children have died. He's lost all his money. Job's friends come trapping in and see, being who they are, they know the first part. They know chapters 10 to 15.

They've read all those things that say, if you live morally, your life will go well. They look at Job and they say, hmm, your life is not going well. Job, you must be sinning. You must be doing something wrong. They're harsh. They're miserable comforters. They're rigid. They're moralistic. They have hold of one end of the pattern stick. They know there's a pattern, but they think they can see it all.

They think they can understand it all. They know how life customarily works, but they don't think there's any exceptions to the way life customarily works. And by the way, I'm not saying there's exceptions to the moral absolutes. Adulteries are always wrong. But you see, the principle is if you are faithful and you don't commit adultery, you don't lie, you know, life will go well to you. But there's an exceptions to that. And that's what the book of Proverbs is saying in a nutshell. If you're the kind of person who says, if I live a good life, my life will go well.

You're a conservative fool. If you're the kind of person that says, I can decide my own reality. I can decide what is right or wrong. I don't believe that there's some divine order that I have to submit to. You're a liberal fool. You're a conservative fool. You're a moralistic fool. You're a relativistic fool. But we're all fools somewhere because we live in a society where we're split on this. We're pushing each other more into the foolishness, you know. And we also have temperaments or habits of mind. We can't hold it together. This is a problem. What is the solution? The clue to the solution is right here.

When I was going through this summer, one of the things I realized as I was reading through the book of Proverbs in a way I never had done before, which is right through, instead of dipping in here and there, I suddenly realized, kind of to my horror almost, that almost nobody uses this book the way it was written. It was written to be a manual to be gone through in a community under wise parents and then later on wise mentors.

In other words, you're supposed to be a group of people who went through it and you get to chapters 10 to 15 and you see where it says, you know, the wicked perish, the wicked have bad lives and the good have good lives. And you read that and you'd say, really? Always? And then you get to chapter 16 and you start to see, well, there's other aspects to it. And don't you realize, I didn't realize this, no one proverb gives you the whole picture

About a subject there are dozens of proverbs. They all have a little different perspective on each subject You've got to look at them all together You have to connect them and you have to discuss them you have to reflect on them and when you do that in a community Oh for years and years under wise parents and under eventually under wise teachers and mentors you become wise and I suddenly realized Nobody does that we don't believe in that

We believe in specialty knowledge because of the scientific side. We believe in moral training because of the traditional sides. Nobody's doing that. We're in trouble. Especially when a lot of us have parents who are fools, right? A lot of us had no mentors at all. A lot of people are in positions like that. And maybe we could say, oh my word, and the more you talk, I suddenly realize the wisdom train has left the station and I wasn't on it. But maybe there's a solution.

Class, what is the most, this is a piece of poetry, what is the most basic point of this poem about wisdom? Class, don't answer, this is a sermon. It's a rhetorical device. It's a rhetorical device, okay? Wisdom is personified. Wisdom is I, me, my. An abstract quality is turned into a person. Well, you say that's just a wonderful didactic device, and it is, especially when you consider that probably the Book of Proverbs was a manual,

that was used in schools for young men. And that's one of the reasons why, first of all, when you read Proverbs, you constantly hear the speaker in Proverbs always saying, my son. And it's the reason why over and over and over again in the book of Proverbs, wisdom is depicted as a woman, as a woman who calls. And one of the reasons would be this. Here's the point. Wisdom

Here's the point. Wisdom is not so much a matter of mastering a bunch of rules. It's a love affair with wisdom you need. You need to long for wisdom. You need to be, you know, and so it worked very well, you know. Wonderful rhetorical device, huh? Personification of wisdom. Very, very gripping. But is that all it is? What if it's not just poetry? What if the wisdom of God really was a person who you could know and love?

And then if you got into a relationship with this person, it made you wise. Then those of us who never had the parents, never had the mentors, never had the guides, never had the counselors we should have, but this would be the ultimate guide, the ultimate mentor, the ultimate counselor, the wonderful counselor. What if wisdom was a person? Well, you say, wonderful idea, very fancy. No, it's not a fancy idea.

There's a lot of other wisdom literature besides the stuff you have in the Bible, by the way, a lot of other wisdom literature in ancient Israel. And one of those pieces of literature is called the wisdom of the son of Sirach. And in the wisdom of the son of Sirach, it's a good book. It's an interesting book. It's not particularly, you know, insightful, but it's typical of wisdom literature. And in it, there's this interesting call and challenge. The son of Sirach says this, quote, turn unto me, you who are untaught.

Why do you say you are lacking in these things, and why are your souls so thirsty? I say to you, find wisdom. Put your necks under its yoke and bear its burden. If you are intent, you can find wisdom. See with your eyes that I have labored for it, and I have found for my soul much rest. Now, that's a typical invitation to wisdom, but can you imagine how the listeners, several centuries later,

could not believe their ears when one sage, one rabbi, one teacher got up and said these words. "'Come unto me, come unto me, "'all you who labor and are heavy laden, "'and I will give you rest. "'Take my yoke upon you and learn of me, "'for I am meek and lowly in heart, "'and you will find rest for your souls. "'For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.'"

Now, you notice how similar those statements are? But look at the astounding difference. The son of Sirach says, get the yoke, which is the training. Put your head in the yoke of training. Get discipline. Get the yoke. Get training. And then you get rest for your souls. And Jesus says, come to me. Take my yoke upon you.

Learn of me and I will give you rest for your souls. You know what Jesus is saying is? He's saying, I am wisdom in a personic form. I am the wisdom of God. I am wisdom personified. A relationship with me will make you wise. Wisdom ultimately is not a body of knowledge to master, not a body of principles to memorize. It's knowing me. Living for me and learning from me is the only thing you can live for and learn from that won't exhaust you, he says.

This is poetry, of course, it's poetry. But it's not just poetry, it's pointing to a reality. You know what that reality is? In John chapter one, John chapter one, the gospel of Jesus Christ is opened with a chapter based almost completely on Proverbs eight. Because in John chapter one, here's what we read. In the beginning was the word.

But it's the Greek word logos, which is a Greek word that had wisdom in Greek philosophy, wisdom connotation. So here's how we could translate it without too much paraphrase. In the beginning was the wisdom, and the wisdom was with God, and the wisdom was God. For nothing was made without him. And the wisdom of God became flesh and dwelled among us, and we beheld his glory. Glories of the only begotten of the Father, filled with grace and truth. You know what the Bible's telling us? You know what John is telling us?

Here is the secret of wisdom. In the beginning, God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit had perfect love relationships. They rejoiced in each other. They deferred to each other. They glorified each other. They honored each other. They had perfect love relationships. And it was out of that, out of an explosion of that love and joy that they made the human race and the world so that we could share in it. So the meaning of life is not power. It's not struggle. And it's certainly not an accident. It's having those loving relationships.

All psychological reality, the deepest wisdom, the deepest secret of all psychological and social reality is to know, resemble, and embody the inner life of the Trinity. Now, when Jesus Christ says, I am the wisdom in personic form, let's just close with a little application. First of all, he's saying, I am the wisdom to you. I'm the wisdom of God for you. I'm the wisdom of God with you.

I'm the wisdom of God to you, for you, with you. First of all, I'm the wisdom of God to you. When Jesus says, I'm the wisdom of God, those of you who are out there waiting for an airtight argument before you'll believe need to think twice. See, when he says, I am the wisdom of God to you, he's saying, I am the ultimate argument for the existence of God. I've had a lot of friends who use their wisdom, they use their noggin, and they're always saying, if you just give me an airtight argument, I could believe. What if God didn't send an airtight argument? What if God sent an airtight person?

What if he's the wisdom? You know what that means? I don't care who you are or where you are in your faith journey or what you believe, how much or how little or nothing at all. Sit down with a group of people, a community, and go through the life of Jesus. Read about him. Work through him. Look at his words. Look at his deeds. And you will be shocked constantly, but you'll realize it's a shock of meeting somebody for the first time who's perfect. And you'll say, nobody could have made this guy up.

See, first of all, Jesus is the wisdom of God to you. He is the ultimate argument, but he's in the form of a person for the existence of God. Secondly, Jesus is the wisdom of God for us. There was a man named William Holland who was one of the Wesley's friends who was struggling spiritually, and he read a place in one of Martin Luther's works where Martin Luther said, have you nothing to do? No, nothing. But look to Jesus who has become for you wisdom and

and righteousness and sanctification and redemption. At that minute, William Holland's life was utterly changed. He says, suddenly the penny dropped. Now what happened? Here's why. Jesus, in some ways, is like every other sage that's ever lived, right? He says, here is the wise way to live. Sure, he's a great teacher, but no other sage ever said, and I have come to live that life for you. See, when he says, my yoke is the only one that's easy, my yoke is the only one that's light, here's what he's saying.

Every other sage in the world has always said this is how you should live do it and you will live But Jesus is the only one who said this is how you should live and I have lived the life You should have lived and died to death You should have died because of your failure to live that way so that when you ask God accept me because of what Jesus has done not because what I have done he will bring you into his love when you do that if you do that it heals that lack of ability to see who you are it heals both inferiority and superiority and

It heals both superiority and inferiority. Because Jesus was wisdom for you, he had to die for you, which humbles you out of your vanity. But because he was glad to die for you, it affirms you out of your inferiority. And finally, you see who you really are and all the rest of wisdom proceeds from that. Only the gospel of Jesus Christ dying for you, being wisdom for you, for you, not just to you, but for you. We'll get rid of both moralism and relativism and we'll finally find wisdom. One last thing.

Jesus is wisdom with us. When you see Jesus suffering on the cross and it looks like, what in the world is God doing? But then the resurrection. That is the ultimate example of how even though you can't see that there's wisdom behind what God is doing, it's there. Jesus Christ says, do you want rest? The cross, the gospel, Jesus Christ is the only wisdom that will give you rest. Lay your deadly doing down, down at Jesus' feet. Stand in him and him alone, gloriously complete. Let's pray.

Thank you, Father, for making us wise to where wisdom is, Jesus. Now make us wise in knowing him. Show us as a community how to use him, see him, know him, love him to make us wise because I know that's what you want us to be and do. So we pray, Lord, that you would help us as the year goes by to grow more and more into wisdom and in the likeness of your son, Jesus Christ. In his name we pray. Amen.

Thank you for joining us today. If you were encouraged by today's teaching, please rate and review it so more people can discover this podcast. This month's sermons were recorded in 2004. The sermons and talks you hear on the Gospel and Life podcast were preached from 1989 to 2017 while Dr. Keller was senior pastor at Redeemer Presbyterian Church.