Episode Transcript
You take God's precious word.
Turn to the book of Proverbs, please.
Proverbs chapter 14, verse 33.
Proverbs chapter 14, verse 33.
The title of the message tonight is Wisdom Rests.
Wisdom Rests.
Rest is a big word in the Bible.
We don't get very far into creation and we learn that God rested on the seventh day.
We then learn in the law that man was commanded to rest, a continual rest, because that rest was repeated.
Every Sabbath week, many, many Sabbaths actually, the yearly Sabbaths.
And then you get in the New Testament, and we're commanded to rest again.
So rest is a wonderful thing.
And we're going to learn tonight a wonderful attribute about wisdom.
And let's look at the first two words.
Wisdom resteth.
Isn't that something?
Just ponder on that a little bit.
Wisdom resteth.
So one of the things that wisdom does is that wisdom rests.
Now wisdom doesn't rest in the sense that it's tired, but wisdom rests in the sense that it settles down.
It settles down.
Speaking of Noah's Ark in Genesis 8. 4, the Bible says, and the ark rested.
This is the kind of rest we're talking about, and that same word, by the way.
The ark rested in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, upon the mountains of Arat.
Think about that.
When did the ark rest?
Seven.
Seven.
When do we rest?
Seventh day.
We rest on a seven, don't we?
When the ark rests, it rested on two sevens.
This is significant in Scripture.
Wisdom rests.
Same Hebrew word As the ark rested on the mountain, so wisdom also rests.
The ark wasn't tired, but the ark was settled on the mountains.
It had finished moving all over the face of the earth, over those waters, and it found its forever home on those mountains.
And from recent evidence that I've seen, and perhaps you've seen too, it appears that the Ark has been there ever since, and the remains are still there today.
They recently performed, maybe y'all seen this scans, that uh on a certain spot on on the mountains of Arat, and they found an arc shape scan that is the exact dimensions of the ark in the Bible.
And when the ark was floating on the waters, it wasn't settled.
It was moving from one place to another, but on the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month The ark settled down.
It rested on those mountains.
And since the ark settled down on those mountains.
Then the ark remained still on the mountains.
So understand there's there's two different thoughts that we're looking at here.
Number one, The ark settles in one particular place and stays there.
Number two, once it stays there, it lies uh uh uh rested.
It's it's it lies settled.
It doesn't lie there on the mountain shaking and quivering.
It lies still.
So it remains in the mountain, but once it's in the mountain, it remains still.
And think of a house.
If you have a house with children in it, those children may live in that house.
That's their home.
So they're located in the home.
But they may not be still in the home, right?
If restless children are running around the house, a grown-up may say, you kids need to settle down in the sense of being still.
That's the concept behind the ark resting here on the mountain as the concept behind wisdom resting.
Both of these ideas need to be understood when we read this verse.
As the ark settled down on the mountains of Arat to never leave and to never stir around again on that mountain.
So Solomon said, Wisdom settles down where?
Look back in your text.
Wisdom settles down in the heart In the heart.
God has ordained the human heart to be the mountains of Arat, so to speak, for wisdom to settle down in Of all the places that that ark could have settled down.
It didn't have to land on the mountain.
It could have landed in the valley.
It didn't have to land on Ararat, it could have landed somewhere else.
But out of all the places on earth, that ark rested On Mount Ararat.
God ordained that to be the place for that ark to rest, and God has ordained the human heart as the place for wisdom's resting spot.
And because wisdom settles down in a man's heart, once a man is wise, he will continue to be wise because wisdom won't leave.
Just like that ark didn't hop up and leave.
And that may be one of the reasons that God put it on that mountain.
Because once it's on that mountain, you're not getting a ship down off the mountain again Because water's never going to go up to that mountain to float it back off again.
It's there for good.
In the same way, when wisdom rests in the human heart, it's there just as long as that ark is on the mountains of Arat.
It's never going to float away again.
Why?
Because our salvation is eternal.
We've learned over and over again as we've been studying the book of Proverbs That the wisdom of man comes through the gospel of Jesus Christ.
You cannot be truly wise without it.
If you could, then you would have wise people going to hell.
You know?
And so uh the Noah's Ark uh sailed all over the world, wherever it went to on those on those waters during the the storms and during the rain.
And in the same way wisdom sails all over the world in search of its resting place.
The Bible says in Proverbs 120, Wisdom crieth without, she uttereth her voice In the streets.
That's Proverbs 120.
Meaning wisdom is actively searching the hearts of men For a place to settle down in.
Wisdom is constantly on patrol, crying out, is there a place, can I rest in this human heart here?
Can I rest in this human heart here?
And and wisdom reasons, the wisdom of God reasons.
As the Word of God is preached to people, wisdom is crying out, looking for a forever home in their heart.
But as the ark did not rest in every mountainous region, so God's wisdom will not rest in every human heart.
But only in the heart, look back in your text, of him that hath understanding.
Him that hath understanding.
Wisdom can't abide in the heart of a fool Because there's no place for it to settle down there.
The mountains of Arat had to be pretty strong to hold up that big ship.
It worked as a nice foundation for that ship to rest upon.
Wisdom also has to have a foundation to rest upon.
Now that foundation is our word here.
That foundation is understanding.
Wisdom rests upon the foundation of understanding.
It says that wisdom rests where?
In the heart of him. that hath understanding.
So wisdom rests upon a heart that understands that God is the foundation of all things.
That God's Son is the Redeemer of mankind.
And without that foundation, there is no mountain for wisdom to rest upon in the human heart Jesus said in Matthew chapter 13 verse 19, and this is the parable of the sower, which I come back to very often because it is a very rich, rich parable.
Jesus said, when anyone heareth the word of the kingdom, and there's our word, understandeth it not.
Wisdom rests where?
In the heart of him that has understanding.
And so when someone hears the word the kingdom, that is, when they hear the word preached, they hear the gospel preached and they understand it not, then cometh the wicked one, and catcheth away that which was sown where?
In his heart Wisdom rest in the heart of him that has understanding.
And here we are, those two words right here in the parable of the sower, which helps us understand so much about The gospel.
Here we go.
Understand and heart.
See them The two things we have here in our proverb.
Wisdom rests in the heart heart of him that hath understanding.
And Jesus says when someone hears the gospel, what is the gospel?
The word of the kingdom.
What's the word of the kingdom?
That's wisdom.
So when that word comes into the human heart, because he says he catcheth away that which was sown in his heart.
They got down into his heart, but when it got down into his heart, there was no understanding of it.
And because of that, it has no place to rest, and it gets taken away.
It's amazing.
He said, this is he which receives seed by the wayside.
Now, had the person who heard the word of the kingdom understood it?
Had they had understanding of it in the biblical sense?
then wisdom would have settled down in that person's heart.
In fact, in the parable of the sower The only person in that parable that was saved.
The only person.
Because in each instance, in each instance in the parable of the sower, The word of the kingdom was sown.
The gospel was preached.
There was nothing wrong with the seed.
He starts off with a person that has the seed in the heart, but has no understanding to comprehend that seed.
So the seed's taken away.
It's useless if you don't understand it.
And a gospel that's not understood is useless to save.
When it's here, the person comprehends it in that understanding faith, it then settles down there.
Every other time that the seed is sown in the parable of the sower, there's no salvation.
There's only one time when there's salvation.
Do you know what made the difference?
That gospel seed was sown, and there was understanding there.
Understanding there.
It's amazing.
Jesus went on to say in Matthew 13, verse 23, but he that receives seed, that's the word of the kingdom, that's the gospel, into the good ground, that's the heart.
Is he that heareth the word, and there's our word, understandeth it.
Isn't that something?
What happens when he hears and understands?
He then bears fruit.
You see?
That's a saved person.
And so The gospel, wisdom, it rests in the heart of him that has understanding.
And here's Jesus teaching on that very thing.
Why?
Because the same Jesus that's teaching us that in Matthew is the same Jesus. through the Holy Spirit teaching us this here in the book of Proverbs.
So Solomon said, wisdom rests in the heart of him that has understanding.
But it doesn't simply rest in the sense of it making that person its forever home.
Once it's there, it's in its forever home.
That's why it brings forth fruit.
You see, it's got its root down in it, and that person's saved forever.
They're going to bear fruit.
But not only do they bear fruit, not only is it there forever, because you'll always believe the gospel.
Once you believe the gospel, you'll always believe the gospel, so you'll always be saved.
The Bible teaches that.
But resting, settling down, remember there were two concepts to that.
Not only does the art settle on the mountain, it stays there.
But it's still while it's on the mountain.
It remains settled on the mountain.
It has to be, because once you're settled Then you're not moved.
You see?
So you have to, so you've got a forever home, but at the same time you're settled You're still like you kids settle down.
Our teacher in elementary school was really wise.
When w us kids got rambunctious, should always have a great idea.
Let's play quiet water, still water.
Y'all ever play that game?
I have tried, you never played it?
Really?
Kids are messing up.
We'd always try to impress the teacher to see who could be the stillest.
It goes like this, quiet water, still water, one, two, three.
See who can be the quietest and the stillest as can be.
Then all the children try to impress the teacher by being as still and quiet as possible.
We thought we were playing a game.
She was just getting some rest from us She could have given her brain a rest.
Did y'all play that, Brother Shepherd?
No, we played it.
Lay your head down on the desk and keep all you.
For those online who could not hear in Brother Shepherd's school, they played Lay Your Head Down on the Desk, and if you talk you get a whipping.
That would work too.
But the quiet and still.
And that word is to be understood in that sense too.
The ark isn't moving on Mount Arat right now.
It's been resting, motionless.
Still all these years.
So wisdom doesn't just settle down in our hearts, but wisdom makes our hearts settle down.
We'll repeat that again.
Wisdom doesn't just settle down in our hearts, but wisdom makes our hearts settle down You look at that wild man of Gadera.
Once he became a believer, his heart settled down.
You look at all the troubled hearts who don't know if they're going to heaven.
And once they understand the gospel and realize what Jesus did for them, they have peace through the blood of his cross.
Their hearts Settle down.
Yes, we're we're people made of fallen flesh.
Yes, we get troubled.
But by and large, our hearts settle.
Wisdom stills our hearts.
Now in Numbers chapter 13 We have the story of these 12 leaders from the nation of Israel.
And God told them to go spy out the land of Canaan.
He says you go spy that land out and you see what kind of folks are over there, what what what your enemies are going to look like before you go fight them What the land looks like, you come back and tell the people.
Now I believe God did that on purpose.
I believe he wanted to see how big and bad they were But that's another story.
So they come back.
And when they come back, 10 out of those 12 spies started saying, man, there's giants over there.
Those guys are huge.
They're cities, they're fortified.
We there's no way we can go over there and win a battle against them.
And now all the people decided.
Let's fire Moses.
Let's get us another leader.
We'll go back and we'll be slaves in Egypt again.
Let's just go back.
This is this has just been a big waste of time And they were all upset.
They're ready to stone people.
They're ready to, I mean, they're mad.
They're very upset.
Now there were two men that had wisdom resting in their hearts.
Two men. that had understanding and wisdom rested in their hearts, they knew the battle was not theirs.
They knew the battle was God's Now watch what one of these spies say while everybody's upset and raging and scared.
After hearing the bad news, one of those twelve spas Joshua and Caleb who believed God and understood what he was trying to do.
One of them was named Caleb.
And while the rest of the Israelites were angry at God and panic-stricken, the Bible says in Numbers 13, 30, and Caleb, what's that word?
Stilled.
He settled.
The people before Moses and said, let us go up at once and possess it, for we are well able to overcome it.
Let's go, guys.
What are we waiting for?
Come on.
We'll go attack them right now.
Caleb stilled the people.
Now they didn't last because they didn't believe.
But you know what that shows?
Caleb's heart was still on the matter.
While everyone else is panic-stricken, oh Caleb and Joshua, who had the understanding and wisdom of God resting in their hearts.
They're like.
These guys are nothing.
We saw what God did on Passover night.
We saw what God did at the Red Sea.
We saw what God did when we needed water and he brought it forth out of a rock.
We saw what God did when he sent manna down from heaven.
We know what God told us he would do, and we believe him.
Let's go get our land that he promised us.
And because they had the understanding of God's word, that wisdom rested in their hearts, and because the wisdom rested in their hearts, their hearts were at rest.
While everybody else was panicking and wringing their hands.
And that is what makes the difference in people's lives.
Those who walk around fretting and wringing their hands all the time, and those whose hearts are still.
Wisdom.
It's what makes the difference.
Now we can have wisdom about many different things.
There's some people who say, well, my heart still, I know I'm going to heaven because I know what Jesus did for me.
Other people They need to grow in in in different areas of faith.
That same person that heart may be still like that when it comes to something else, maybe they haven't matured in in their Christian walk.
They may get troubled But you know what?
God will bring them through that trouble.
And when if and when they gain wisdom about that matter, their hearts will be still as well.
There have been a lot of people who impressingly, when it comes their time to die God gives them wisdom about that matter.
And they rest on God's word.
And they face it in faith.
Their hearts are still.
And even if we don't know have wisdom about every single thing specifically, we have wisdom about everything generally.
And that is Jesus doeth all things well.
He does all things well.
There was a sermon I heard once from Adrian Rogers, and I tell you, it really changed my life.
He was talking about the sovereignty of God in the believer's life.
Job is a fine example.
All that came upon Job, that's enough to shake any man's world.
Make him Make him think he's going nuts.
Make him think, what God, what have I done?
You know, it's enough to shake any man's world.
But at the heart of all of that, do you know what it was?
None of that happened without God giving permission for it to happen.
That's one of the biggest lessons Of Job.
God said, go ahead, but don't do this.
Or go ahead, but don't do this.
He would give the devil permission before any of that stuff was done.
And with all that Adri Rogers said, and he assured the believer, and I'll repeat it and assure you, he said there is not a blade of grass that moves by the wind without God's permission.
And when you think of life that way, suddenly you realize.
And here recently I was troubled about something, very troubled about something.
And I was confused about something.
And in the middle of all that, I sat down and I prayed.
And I said, God, you allowed this into my life.
I trust you.
I trust you.
And you know what?
Even though the chaos is there, even though the giants are still in the land.
Even though your kids are still dead from the whirlwind and the the the the the cattle are dead and and and there's boils on your flesh like Job, like the brother shepherd speaking through Job, even though all that's going on.
God is still in control.
And having that wisdom, that understanding, that nothing happens in my life apart from the wise and sovereign permission of my God. to test my faith, to grow me in his grace, to allow my suffering to bring him honor and glory.
When we understand it's all by God's permission, our heart can be still, even though it harbors many questions.
Make sense?
Wisdom rests in the heart of him that has understanding.
Wisdom doesn't jump up and down and wring its hands in fear and unbelief.
Wisdom is still and quiet and sure.
In the midst of trouble.
And I'm so thankful that because of our faith in Jesus, even though we do get scared We never get moved, for wisdom is settled in our hearts.
Now look back in your text, but that which is in the midst of fools.
In the midst, meaning also in the heart, the midst meaning the center of the fool, the heart of the fool.
As a degree of wisdom settles in the heart of every believer, so foolishness settles in the hearts of fools.
But it's neither really still or settled, is it?
It just resides there and it's tumultuous.
The Bible says the wicked are like the troubled sea.
Just troubled, troubled, troubled, troubled, troubled.
And that which is in the midst of fools, look in your text, is made known.
I find it amazing that God wanted Israel to see how big their enemies were.
I told you that.
After seeing those giants in the land, only those who trusted in God to overcome those giants were able to enter in.
And those giants represent the obstacles we face as children of God, sin, Satan, and death, things too big for us to overcome, but not too big for Jesus.
Because those unbelieving spies saw the giants, you know what happened?
Their foolishness was made known I mean, walking all across that desert, you would think they were believers.
They came out of Egypt.
They came from the desert, but every time they ran into trouble, you know what happened?
Their foolishness was made known.
It was just made known.
It was unsettled.
Listen to the difference between the rest of wisdom that God wanted to give Israel and the unsettledness of the foolishness that Israel had in their unbelief.
In Isaiah chapter 30.
Isaiah 30 verses 15 through 16.
For thus saith the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel, in returning, in other words, in re- in the in you, Israel returning to God And rest shall ye be saved.
You see that?
There's two things that man needs to be saved.
He needs to return back to God and rest in Jesus.
That's what he needs.
Return and rest.
Come back to God and rest.
He said, in returning.
And rest shall ye be saved.
In quietness, and in confidence Shall be your strength.
That's what God told them.
Return and rest.
You'll be saved.
Be quiet.
And confident, and you'll be strong, quiet, meaning still and confident in God's ability to take care of you Then verse 16, God said, that's what I said, Israel.
Return and rest, be still and be quiet.
But ye said no.
This verse 16.
But ye said no.
We're not going to return and rest.
We're not going to be still and quiet, for we will flee upon horses.
Now them saying they're going to flee upon horses, they're they're not going to uh uh trust God to protect them They're gonna run away.
Sounds like Israel wanted to go back to Egypt, doesn't it?
That's that which is in the midst of fools being made known, you see?
It's being made known Therefore shall ye flee, God said, and we will ride upon the swift, therefore shall they that pursue you be swift.
So God says, that's what you said, so okay.
You want to run away?
I'm going to let you run away.
So there is rest, there is quietness, there is confidence and strength for those who understand God's eternal plan for believers in Jesus Christ.
And there is work, weakness, whining, and confusion for those who don't.
That's why I'm glad I have a Bible.
And that's why I'm glad in this proverb, in Isaiah.
In Matthew and every other place in God's Word, God is always commanding us, reminding us, and turning our eyes back. to the wise and loving rest he's provided us in his son, given to us in his word.
Father, thank you so much for your precious word and your precious Son.
Truly, Jesus has become wisdom unto us.
And Lord, I pray that it'll rest in our hearts, and our hearts will rest in Him.
In quietness and in confidence, let us enjoy the strength of our Lord.
Being always mindful, Father, that not a blade of grass blows in the wind. without your permission.
Thank you that we can always trust you to know and be sovereignly in control of everything.
That happens to us in our lives.
In Jesus' precious name.
Amen.
