Yes, if you call out for insight and raise your voice for understanding, (4) if you seek it like silver and search for it as for hidden treasures, (5) then you will understand the fear of the LORD and find the knowledge of God. – Proverbs 2:3-5
Again when Charles Leiter was just recently here, he brought out the fact that from Hebrews 12 we see that when Proverbs speaks as a father to the son, we can always take that as God speaking to one of His children. Always.
Hebrews 12 lays down that precedent for us. That’s the way to understand the Proverbs. So think here, “My son,” this is God speaking to us. My sons and daughters. “If you receive My words and treasure up My commandments with you, making your ear attentive to wisdom and inclining your heart to understanding…” You see that? “…Inclining your heart to understanding.” “Yes, if you call out for insight, raise your voice for understanding, if you seek it like silver and search for it as for hidden treasure..” “..search for it as for hidden treasure..”
And you know the thing about hidden treasure? You got treasure hidden in the ground. It’s not like opening a treasure chest. It’s more like finding a diamond that’s buried in the ground. And you have to dig for it, and you find it, you chip away at it. You need to polish it. You need to cut it. And then you end up with this tremendous jewel. There’s work there. God is pleased when we put forth effort and dig for the truth.
And listen. Listen to what He says, “If you seek it like silver and search for it as hidden treasures, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God. For the Lord gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding; he stores up sound wisdom for the upright; he is a shield to those who walk in integrity, guarding the paths of justice watching over the ways of his saints. Then you will understand righteousness and justice..” Do you see what’s being said? If you search. If you dig. If you apply yourself. You’re going to get understanding. You’re going to get knowledge. The knowledge of God.
You want to ascend the hill of the Lord? You want to come into His presence? Be done with just flippant reading of the Scriptures. You go and dive and you dig in. And you know what God’s saying? I take great glory in concealing things. But if you’ll go dig. And if you’ll fight to find truth in that Word. If you’ll search for it as for treasure. How does a man seek for treasure? He gives everything to find it. Look at the Gold Rush. I mean men travelled across Indian infested plains and mountains to get there. They went through difficulties. They went through trial. You ever heard? You ever heard the law of the Yukon? The men that went there to find gold? Our brother Andy quotes that in one of his messages on missions. The law of the Yukon. Men suffered great hardship. They died. They suffered exposure. They went through all manner of difficulty. And He is saying if you will seek for this truth like that.
You see this, isn’t anything casual. The ones He yields His treasures to, they fight for it. They look for it. They give effort in it. A knowledge of God. I mean you want to know God? You want to come to a place? You know, reading Hudson Taylor’s biography, there was a place where suddenly he became just totally gripped by John 15. I mean he saw it in a way that he had never seen it before. Had he ever read it before? Many times. But suddenly God pulled back the blinders. Suddenly it was revealed to him in a way.
Do you hear how Paul prayed for the Ephesians? He prayed for them, that the eyes of their understanding would be opened. That they would have a revelation. How does that happen? God is telling us right here it’s by digging. It’s by searching for it as for hidden treasure. Listen to all this that you’ll find. You’ll “understand righteousness.. justice.. equity, every good path; ..wisdom will come into your heart, ..knowledge will be pleasant to your soul; discretion will watch over you, understanding will guard you, delivering you from the way of evil, from men of perverted speech, who forsake the paths of uprightness to walk in the ways of darkness..”
I can tell you right away from time to time we get folks who come into the church and they’re not godly. They have some bent toward religion but they’re not godly. They don’t love Christ. And people like that tend to attract each other. You know typically in the church, it’s like they say, “birds of a feather, they flock together.” You typically get the most unspiritual people, and they flock together. They attract one another. And I’ll guarantee you guys like that are not digging in the Scripture. That’s why they’re not delivered “from men of perverted speech.” Or “forsake the paths of uprightness to walk in the ways of darkness.” Why? Because they’re not giving themselves to search Scripture.
And so they’re not discerning with regards to people, and they immediately are attracted to people with perverted speech that aren’t spiritual. But that’s not all. “Who rejoice in doing evil ..delight in the perverseness of evil, men whose paths are crooked, and who are devious in their ways.” You see what happens when you don’t study Scripture? And seek it and dig into it? You end up in companionship that’s no good. But that’s not all. There’s companionship of the opposite sex thats no good that comes forth from this too. “So you will be delivered…” Now this all goes back to it, seeking for this as for hidden treasure. “And so you will be delivered from the forbidden woman, from the adulteress with her smooth words, who forsakes the companion of her youth and forgets the covenant of her God; for her house sinks down to death, and her paths to the departed.”
Do you see some of the fruits of searching diligently into the Word? Is it any wonder why people end up with corrupt companionship? And they run off into all sorts of sexual immorality. Cause they’re not establishing themselves in the Word of God. And Jesus said you want to even prove your discipleship you abide in my Word. That’s the proof. Brethren, this is our life. This is our health. This is our meat. This is where you come to know God.
You want to be wafted up into the inner sanctuary? You want to be floored? You want God to open your eyes to revelations? That most others don’t see and enjoy. You want to have meetings with Christ that simply stun you and awe you? It’s not by forever and always flippantly reading the Bible and spending most of your time in fellowship with half corrupt professing Christians. It isn’t that. It’s giving yourself seriously to this. And God takes glory. You have to understand this. God takes glory in hiding these things from the casual observer, and the casual reader.
The guy who flippantly gets, the guy that just casually, and the girl that casually just wants to have this, you know, relationship with scripture that’s shallow. God isn’t going to give you the treasure. And it’s His glory not to. I want you to think about this. Oh I can tell you, I get the privilege, because I’m a pastor, to spend enormous amounts of time in the Word. But I can tell you there are times when I roll off that seat onto my face because I am just overwhelmed. And God opens my eyes. You have that happen, you don’t want to trade that. You don’t want to give your Bible reading time. You don’t want to give up your study. Because God satisfies your soul in a way things in this world don’t compare to it.
