The Way Of Wisdom

0:00 Real Life presents the Jack Hibbs Podcast, with intention and boldness to proclaim truth, equip the saints, and impact our culture. You and I as believers, you're going to see how you and I have the opportunity to ask God for divine supernatural wisdom for the living of our lives. If we had asked him earlier in our lives, we would have avoided a lot of pain, sorrow, and chaos.

0:58 With all of the knowledge that we are acquiring as a civilization, as a people, knowledge in the way of technologies, knowledge defined in the sense of learning certain things. Scarcely can call it even actually knowledge. Yes, hallelujah, our astronauts are back home. They made it back, and that's amazing. But all of that happened by tremendous understanding of sciences. That said, it may not necessarily convey into the realm of knowledge. And I'll make more of that in a moment. You say, well, Jack, isn't all that science stuff knowledge?

1:39 Yes, it is. But it's more like how a medical doctor might be or an attorney. You know, now in this world that you and I live in, if you've got a problem physically, look, I've lived long enough to watch the progression of this. When I was a little kid, we all went to the same doctor. I mean, we didn't go to the same doctor, but we went to the doctor. And now you go to the doctor long enough to get a referral to a specialist. Everything has been specialized. Are you tracking with me? Same in law. There used to be lawyers. And now there's lawyers of certain particular types of need. And...

2:21 They are very knowing about that topic, but not on the broad view. God desires you and I to be very, very knowledgeable on the broad view of everything. Does it make sense? We are not to be, in fact, that's why, listen, there are churches that only focus on, for example, topical messages. And though they're wonderful, they're not to be, They don't usually take you through all the doctrines of the Bible. There are some churches that only talk about Bible prophecy. And they don't talk about anything else. They don't talk about sin or repentance or other doctrines.

3:02 Are you hearing me? You can have some information, but it may not be knowledge. The book of Proverbs fixes all that. We need this book, and listen, the Christian church needs this book. Parents need this book. Kids need this book. Churches need this book. America needs this book. But America's not going to get this book unless you and I get it inside of us, and we live it out. So obviously, we start out looking at the life and the times of this man, Solomon. We've all, I would think, have heard enough about Solomon in some way, shape, or form, the son of... David, technically, of course, the son of David and Bathsheba, if you remember.

3:46 Now look, David was supposed to go to war, but in their success, David had gotten sloppy. David slept in. And all the troops and all the commandos of Israel went to battle in David's day. But David stayed home, the Bible says. He wasn't supposed to. He stayed home. You know, listen, the temptation to get into that retirement mode, or maybe you're young and you're not in that retirement mode, but you've enjoyed some form of success. So you kind of pull back, so to speak, off the throttle, or you glide, or you cruise. You get a little sloppy. Well, David got a lot sloppy.

4:26 He didn't go to battle, slept in, got up one morning, walked out of his palace, probably yawning and scratching his beard or whatever. And he goes to the edge of his patio and he looks down And leave it up to Satan, no doubt about it. There's this woman that's bathing on a few houses over on top of the roof, which is not uncommon for Israel even to this day. The roofs are flat there, and they just keep building up. And David sees Bathsheba. He doesn't know it's Bathsheba. He sees her, and she is a knockout. And David, instead of being in battle...

5:08 You know, idle hands are not good. What is that old saying? Are the devil's workshop or mischief or whatever? And David looks at her and he starts to lust for her. And then he goes to one of his military leaders or at least one of his assistants and says, who is that woman? And they said, oh, that's Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah, the Hittite. He's one of your great soldiers, right? And fast forwarding, David seduces her and she becomes pregnant. And then she says to David, I'm pregnant. Oh, well, your husband's been at war. This is not good.

5:49 So then he sends a communique out to the front line saying, have you right? Come back home. I want to give him a vacation. And David tries to make sure that he sleeps with his own wife, right? To make it look like it's going to be his kid. You say, wait, Jack, are you talking about the Bible or some Hollywood? I know, right? This is the Bible, folks. And, um... Uriah is so dedicated to his fellow soldiers and to the king that instead of enjoying his wife on sabbatical or on leave, he doesn't go home to sleep with her. He sleeps outside the house.

6:29 He won't enjoy the benefits of marriage while his troops are deployed. Are you hearing me? What a loyal guy. David finds out about this. Fast forward again to the point where David says, look, this guy, this guy, he's just, this guy's too good. Put him out in the front of the battle and make sure he's leading one of the attacks. And then I want you to make this certain kind of command. Have everybody retreat, but leave him out on the battlefield alone. Let the enemy kill him. So David murders Bathsheba's husband. And then David takes her to be his wife.

7:12 And then they produce children, obviously. Solomon is one of those boys that come out of that union. And you say, man, this is sordid. Yeah, it is. So is life. And God gives us the Proverbs because what happens as Solomon now comes onto the scene to be the king in David's passing, Solomon doesn't know quite what to do. We'll read about this in a moment. And Solomon, though he, in a sense, was a product of a very sinful series of sins by his father, God has a heart and a love for Solomon that is quite amazing.

7:57 One that has literally affected you and I to this very day. If you're taking notes, and I hope that you are, um, I'm going to read a book. There are two prevailing verses that are throughout the scripture on this one of the book of Proverbs. But one of the most primary, if not the number one thing, is verse 7. You read it a moment ago. The front end of verse 7, if you might want to put it on the top of your notes, it's the same. It should be the same every week. And it's Proverbs 1, verse 7. And it says, the fear or the awe. Think about that. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. Or we can say it this way. So maybe some of your versions put it like this. The awe of the Lord. To be in awe of God is the beginning of wisdom.

8:43 You think about the governing power of that. How about this, everybody, in light of my announcements? Think about the government of God in your life. Is God king? Is God the Lord? Does God rule? Is he your chieftain? Is he your master? Is he your master? overruling power and authority. He is to be, and that's what he wants in our lives. But it's important to realize this, that David writes, because we talk about writings, my goodness, Solomon's gonna be prolific. David was prolific. David writing the book of Psalms predominantly, not all of them, but most of them by far, the Psalm writer.

9:28 David is that personality I've mentioned in times past where I think women gravitated more toward David in a sense than men do, though men certainly did. David had his mighty men of valor, there's no doubt about it, but women have a better balance, I think, this way. David represents, I think, so much the life of the believer in our day and age, and maybe throughout all of time in this way. David was a man after what? God's own heart. God revealed himself to David in very, very unique ways. He revealed himself to Abraham in very unique ways. Moses in very unique ways.

10:09 David in very unique ways. That said, David had very much of a born-again type of relationship with God, even though that, of course, was not the call upon the Old Testament economy. But it is in the New, of course. You must be born again, the Bible says. David... David prayed like you and I do. He had great victories like you and I do. David had great defeats like you and I do. David often had times of great despair. David was prone to the pits of darkness and feeling unworthy, going through a tremendous tug-of-war within himself, right?

10:58 And from his life, mark it down, he writes Psalm 1. So where does Solomon get such an influence? Dads, listen up carefully. Solomon got it from his dad, I do believe. Of course, by the Holy Spirit. But listen to Psalm 1. Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly. By the way, Christians are to seek godly counsel. nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful. By the way, notice the digression. Blessed is the man who walks not, walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands or stands still in the path of sinners, nor, look, sits in the seat of the scornful.

11:41 In other words, if you're going after a worldly counsel, you're just going to go down. You're going to walk over to it. You're going to stand there and look at it. And then you're going to sit down and it's going to pull you in. But his delight is in the law of the Lord, the word of God. And in his law, he meditates day and night. He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water that brings forth fruit in its own season. This is beautiful. This is beautiful. If I was a dictator in education, I would make this like the commencement service for every high school or college. Wow, look at that. Whose leaf also shall not wither, and whatever he does shall prosper. The ungodly are not so, but are like the chaff which the wind drives away.

12:24 Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous. For the Lord knows the way of the righteous, the way of the ungodly, shall perish. That's David. Listen, that's Psalm 1, and it begins to go proverb-like at verse 6. Proverbs are like teaching by what's contrary or the opposites. There is the godly, they shall prosper. The wicked will come to destruction. That's a proverb. Listen, this is awesome, everybody. By the way, if you're a skeptic in the house, listen up. With the passing of every decade, century, or millennia, since the writing of Proverbs, there has been no discovery that has proven one proverb to be wrong or untrue.

13:15 Exactly wow. we're going to read tons of scientific observations that are 3,000 years old, and modern day science as of the 21st century not only does not debunk them, but actually agrees with them, which proves the authorship of the Holy Spirit in the writing of the book of Proverbs. God uses these men that are yielded to him and called by him. Next quote is this. Solomon is one of the most prolific writers, if not only the Old Testament scripture, of not only the Old Testament scripture, but of all humanities, obviously world famous throughout every generation.

14:01 He wrote over 3,000 proverbs in total. The topics that he covers range from human reasoning to animal life, meteorology, astronomy, psychology, anthropology, oceanography. You're going to get that out of Solomon. And the most important, theology. Remarkable. Again, God's the author of the scriptures. How about this? 1 Kings 4, verse 29. God gave Solomon wisdom and exceedingly great understanding. Notice, everybody, the wisdom and the great understanding is a gift from God. Can you remember that, everybody? Look, I don't know anything. If somebody, no one's told me that you're here today if this shoe fits.

14:45 You might be so enamored and so devoted and so given over to higher education. God bless you. That's awesome. But in all of your learning, don't lose God. Don't forget God. Take it from Isaac Newton, who you're not as smart as him. He knows better. Isaac Newton learned that through learning, it brought him closer to God and to the worship and the appreciation of God. Don't become, I like, an old friend of mine used to say, do not become so educated that you're educated beyond your intelligence. Right? That's a great word. It goes on in 1 Kings 4 verse 31. In the middle of that verse it says, His fame spread throughout all the surrounding nations.

15:30 He composed some 3,000 proverbs and wrote 1,005 songs. He could speak with authority about all kinds of plants, from the great cedar of Lebanon to the tiny hyssop that grows from the cracks in a wall. He could also speak about animals, birds, small creatures, and fish. And kings from every nation sent their ambassadors to listen to the wisdom of Solomon, the Bible says. Man, we need somebody like this today, don't we? This is so foreign to us, but it shouldn't be. But that's okay. Guess what, Christian? You and I as believers, you're going to see how you and I have the opportunity to ask God for divine supernatural wisdom for the living of our lives.

16:17 If we had asked him earlier in our lives, we would have avoided a lot of pain, sorrow, and chaos. Remarkable. A God-given gift. In 1 Kings 4, verse 25, we say 1 Kings, 1 and 2 Kings, because Solomon was a king. It says, And Judah and Israel dwelt safely, each man under his vine and his fig tree. I like that. You might say, what's a vine and what's a fig tree? Today, it's your gazebo and your hot tub. It's like just, I don't, you know, just want to live life.

16:59 From Dan, that is way up in the north of Israel, as far as Beersheba, way down south, all the days of Solomon. No war. No war. Remarkable. Only king in all of Israel. God blessed him. Guess who wrote even the book of Ecclesiastes? Anybody know that? Solomon wrote the book of Ecclesiastes, and he wrote that book while he was king. So I mentioned for a moment, remember how David should have gone to war, but he didn't go to war? Solomon was doing tremendously great, and then he got sloppy. And then you know the story. He started adding horses and chariots to his garages. Remember, God says, I don't want you to acquire horses and chariots because you'll be tempted not to trust in me.

17:45 And he did great for a while. But in his prosperity, he forgot God. And he began to buy chariots and horses by the thousands. He began to acquire women from surrounding nations because they were gifted to him as these, and that was normal in those days. If you have, if you have, if we give you some of our most beautiful women, you know, Miss Baghdad or whatever, I don't know what, Miss Damascus or something, I don't know.

18:26 If we give her to you, you promise not to war against us. You know, Indian tribes did that in America. It's just part of the deal. They still do it today in the Amazon. It's like an agreement. Solomon had thousands of wives. Horrific. Insane. What do you do with one? Having one. Having one is something. Having one is something. Keeping one is something. Lisa and I will be coming up on 47 years, I think, this June. No, it's all because of her. I mean, look at me. She puts up with, I'm crazy.

19:08 She's stable. It's the Lord. But Solomon's life in some ways, maybe in many ways, was a life that was tainted by circumstances and labels. Though he may be king, there's things like that that you and I have to deal with in life. And I want you to be encouraged. Because in the midst of it all, in 2 Samuel 12, 24, the Bible tells us that when Solomon is born to them, it says, now the Lord loved him. Out of nowhere, the Bible just drops that truth. The Lord loved him. Can you take that? Can you handle that? That the Lord loves you? Well, I'm not Solomon. You're not supposed to be Solomon. I'm not Solomon.

19:48 But God loves you nonetheless. Well, you know, I come from a sordid past. So did Solomon. Solomon. Well, my dad wasn't perfect. Get in line. Neither was David. But God says, I love Solomon. And God loves you. And in my notes, if you have my notes, it's page four. It says, now the Lord loves Solomon and Jack and Michael and Amber. And put your name in there. In 1 Kings chapter 3, verse 5, the Bible says, At Gibeon, the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream by night. And God said, Ask what shall I give you? Wow.

20:30 Verse 10 says, In the speech that is of Solomon's request, please the Lord, that Solomon had asked this thing. Then God said to him, Because you have asked this thing, he asked for salvation, Wisdom. He asked for knowledge to watch over God's people. And have not asked for a long life for yourself, nor have you asked for riches for yourself. You haven't asked for the life of your enemies, but have asked for your self-understanding to discern justice. Behold, God says, I have done according to your words. Behold, or see, I have given you a wise and understanding heart. This is what we want. Church family. We want a wise and understanding heart.

21:11 It is my intention for me personally in this study to enlarge or increase my heart. to be a wise and understanding heart. I want you to come every Sunday with that intention. I'm going to enlarge my heart this Sunday. We're going to go to church. We're going to learn about wisdom. We're going to learn about knowledge. We're going to learn how to live life in such a way that gives God honor and glory. And all the while, listen to this, all the while, we need not have to make mistakes that our flesh so often gets us into. We don't have to. We can hang on to him. I'm calling this what is a grand slam for all of us. 2 Timothy 3, verse 16.

21:52 When we look at the book of Proverbs, remember this. All scripture. Can I change up the words? All of the Proverbs is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness. Look at it that way. Also this, in Proverbs chapter 4, verse 23, this is that other verse, Proverbs 1, 7, and Proverbs 4, 23. Those two verses are the summation of the entire book. Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life.

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