Dr. George Cross, a former president of the University of Oklahoma, said, “The reason universities are called storehouses of knowledge is that the freshman bring so much of it to the campus and the seniors take so little of it away.”

A wise man learns by the experience of others. An ordinary man learns by his own experience. A fool learns by nobody’s experience.—Anonymous

Knowledge is a mental accumulation of facts. Wisdom is the ability to use knowledge properly in the ordering of one’s life.

Proverbs 4:1–13
4 Hear, my sons, the instruction of a father, And attend to know understanding: 2For I give you good doctrine; Forsake ye not my law. 3For I was a son unto my father, Tender and only beloved in the sight of my mother. 4And he taught me, and said unto me: Let thy heart retain my words; Keep my commandments, and live; 5Get wisdom, get understanding; Forget not, neither decline from the words of my mouth; 6Forsake her not, and she will preserve thee; Love her, and she will keep thee. 7Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom; Yea, with all thy getting get understanding. 8Exalt her, and she will promote thee; She will bring thee to honor, when thou dost embrace her. 9She will give to thy head a chaplet of grace; A crown of beauty will she deliver to thee. 10Hear, O my son, and receive my sayings; And the years of thy life shall be many. 11I have taught thee in the way of wisdom; I have led thee in paths of uprightness. 12When thou goest, thy steps shall not be straitened; And if thou runnest, thou shalt not stumble.
13Take fast hold of instruction; let her not go: Keep her; for she is thy life.

Most all people have this in common: that they want to be happy. They do not all agree on what brings the greatest happiness, but they do all long to have it. This longing is not bad, it is good. Evil consists in trying to find happiness in ways that displease and dishonor God.

Goodness consists in finding happiness in ways that please and honor God. We live in a world when often, we are called upon to do right at the expense of our happiness.

God has established this world in such a way that doing good through faith in Christ always leads to greater happiness eventually. We do not live in a world where we must choose between our eternal happiness and God’s glory! God has created this world and its moral laws in such a way that the more we choose to glorify God, the happier we will be.

God Made Man to Be Eternally Happy

This does not mean that there is no discipline, or self-denial. “If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it” (Mark 8:34, 35).

However, it is clear from Jesus’ words that self-denial is a means to saving our lives. This means simply that we must stop seeking our happiness in one way and start seeking it in another.

What sets Christians off from the world is not that we have given up on the universal quest for happiness, but that we now seek our happiness from a different source and in different ways. We have learned from Jesus, who “for the joy set before him endured the cross” (Hebrews 12:2), that the joy we seek may require that we choose to suffer for Christ’s sake.

Yet we must never become self-pitying because “the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us” (Romans 8:18).

We ought to view the Bible as a divine prescription for how to be cured of all unhappiness. The medicine it prescribes is not always sweet, but the cure it brings is infinite and eternal joy at God’s right hand (Psalm 16:11).

We should all seek wisdom. We should bend all our efforts to become wiser tomorrow than we are today.

Formal education is only one stage in the process of becoming a wise person.

So much of life has been professionalized and institutionalized that we easily slip into the notion that it is the responsibility of some profession or some institution to impart to us wisdom.

William Thomson (later Lord Kelvin) was one of the greatest physicists of nineteenth-century England. When he was away at college, his father wrote to him: “You are young: take care you be not led to what is wrong. A false step now, or the acquiring of an improper habit, might ruin you for life. Frequently look back on your conduct and thence learn wisdom for the future.”

Ephesians 1:17 That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him:

You can see this tendency in the fact that continuing education in many spheres is thought of entirely in terms of taking courses from professionals in institutions. The implication seems to be that wisdom and understanding are something you purchase with tuition and class fees, rather than being a daily, lifelong process of growth.

We should never be content with the wisdom we attained through formal education, and we should not think that the only way to grow in our understanding is by taking more courses.

When the wise man says in Proverbs 4:5, “Get wisdom, get insight,” it does not mean, “Go to school, take more courses.” That might be part of God’s plan for you, but for most of us it is not.

Why is it important to get Wisdom?

Wisdom is important because that is how we gain this true and lasting happiness.

Proverbs 3:13 says, “Happy is the man who finds wisdom and the man who gets understanding.” Proverbs 24:13–14 says, “My son, eat honey, for it is good, and the drippings of the honeycomb are sweet to your taste. Know that wisdom is such to your soul; if you find it, there will be a future, and your hope will not be cut off.”

Proverbs 19:8 says, “He who gets wisdom loves himself.” In other words, do yourself a favor: Get wisdom!

Proverbs 16:16 puts it, “To get wisdom is better than gold; to get understanding is to be chosen rather than silver.” It is a matter of life and death. The ultimate, eternal happiness that all people long for will only be found by those who first “get wisdom.”

Ultimate and eternal happiness is what wisdom will bring, because I want to emphasize that not all happiness comes from true wisdom.

Proverbs 15:21 says, “Folly is a joy to him who has no sense.”

Our thirst for happiness is insatiable in this world, and if we do not have the wisdom to seek it in God, then we will find whatever substitutes we can in the world

There are many sources where people seek happiness apart from God: drink, drugs, suntans, television, tubing, eating, talking, walking, etc. But the happiness that these things bring is not true and lasting. It is not ultimate and eternal. It is not the joy for which we were made. Therefore, it leaves us unsatisfied, frustrated, incomplete, knowing that there must be something more.

What Is Wisdom?

“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight” (Proverbs 9:10).
T. S. Eliot put it so beautifully when he said in “The Rock”: All our knowledge brings us nearer to our ignorance, All our ignorance brings us nearer to death, But nearness to death no nearer to God.

Then he asks the question that hangs over this whole generation:

Where is the Life we have lost in living?

The wisdom that leads to life and ultimate joy begins with knowing and fearing God. You may recall from two weeks ago in the message, “A Woman Who Fears the Lord Is to Be Praised,” that fearing the Lord means fearing to run away from him.
It means fearing to seek refuge, and joy, and hope anywhere other than in God.

Proverbs 11:2 says, “When pride comes, then comes disgrace; but with the humble is wisdom.” The wise person is characterized by humility. The person who is proud does not fear the Lord, but the person who fears the Lord is humble, because he depends on God for everything and fears to take credit himself for what God does.

Humility is teachable and open to change and growth. The proud person does not like to admit his errors and his need for growth. But the humble person is open to counsel and reason, and ready to be corrected and follow truth.

Moses taught that wisdom consists in knowing and doing the commandments of God. Deuteronomy 4:5–6, “Behold I have taught you statutes and ordinances, as the Lord my God commanded me that you should do them … Keep them and do them; for that will be your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples.”

“Everyone who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house upon a rock” (Matthew 7:24).

A good definition of godly wisdom, therefore, would be: hearing and doing God’s Word.
God’s Word does not address itself specifically to every human dilemma. A famous example from Solomon’s life reveals this (1 Kings 3:16–28).
Wisdom must include a sensitive, mature judgment or discernment of how the fear of the Lord should work itself out in all the circumstances not specifically dealt with in the Bible. There has to be what Paul calls in Romans 12:2 a “renewing of the mind” which is then able to examine and approve the will of God. He calls this a “spiritual wisdom” in Colossians 1:9, “We have not ceased to pray for you, that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding.”

The wisdom which follows God’s Word and the wisdom which discerns the way to act when there is no clear word from God are not separate.

How Do We Get Wisdom?

Desire wisdom with all your might.

Proverbs 4:8 says, “Prize her highly and she will exalt you; she will honor you for your embrace.”
To prize something and to embrace someone are signs of intense desire and love. Wisdom must be valuable for us. We must be willing to sell all in order to buy it: “Seek it like silver, and search for it as for hidden treasure” (Proverbs 2:4). Blessed is the graduate who walks through the commencement line more hungry for wisdom than when he entered school, for he shall be satisfied.

Because wisdom is found in the Word of God,

we must apply ourselves in study and meditation to know the Word and do it.
“The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple.” (Psalm 19:7).

To get wisdom, pray.

Solomon was not born a wise man. He prayed for wisdom and God said, “Because you have asked this and have not asked for yourself long life or riches (1 Kings 3:11

To get wisdom we need to think often about dying.

We need to think about how short this life is and the infinite length of the next. Psalm 90:12 says, “So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom.”

To “get wisdom”: one must come to Jesus.

He said to the people of his day, “The queen of the south will arise at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and behold something greater than Solomon is here” (Matthew 12:42).

Greater than Solomon indeed! Solomon spoke God’s wisdom. Jesus is the wisdom of God (1 Corinthians 1:24, 30). Others had spoken truth; he is the truth. Others had pointed the way to life; he is the way and the life (John 14:6). Others had given promises, but “all the promises of God find their yes in him” (2 Corinthians 1:20). Others had offered God’s forgiveness; Jesus bought it by his death.

Therefore, in him are “hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Colossians 2:3).

To know and love and follow this Jesus is to own the treasure of ultimate and eternal happiness. Therefore, the command, “Get wisdom,” means first and foremost “Come to Jesus! Come to Jesus!” in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom.