In this sermon, Pastor Chuck Smith discusses the concept of wisdom and its connection to intelligence and understanding. He highlights the complexity and intricacy of the human body, emphasizing the presence of a genetic code that contains all the information needed for its development and functioning. Pastor Chuck marvels at the ability of the body to heal and repair itself, comparing it to a machine that can fix itself after an accident. He concludes by emphasizing the wisdom and intelligence of God in creating such a remarkable and intricate design.

Oh, let the Son of God enfold you With His Spirit and His love Let Him fill your heart and satisfy your soul Oh, let Him have the things that mold you And His Spirit like a dove Will descend upon your life And make you whole Verse 12. And now with today's message, here's Pastor Chuck. I, Wisdom, now you see Wisdom becomes personified here, dwell with prudence. And I find out knowledge of witty inventions. The fear of the Lord is to hate evil. Pride and arrogancy and the evil way And the forward mouth do I hate. So, the fear of the Lord is to hate evil. Some of the evils that Wisdom hates are listed. Pride, arrogancy, the evil way, the forward mouth, I hate. If you say you have fellowship with God and you walk in darkness, You lie and do not the truth. The fear of the Lord, that's the beginning of wisdom. But the fear of the Lord is to hate evil. You cannot fear the Lord and embrace evil. Embrace evil things. Counsel is mine, Wisdom says. Sound Wisdom, I am understanding, I have strength. By me kings reign and princes decree justice. By me princes rule and nobles, even all the judges of the earth. I love them that love me. And those that seek me early shall find me. Riches and honor are with me, yea, durable riches and righteousness. And my fruit is better than gold, yes, than fine gold. And my revenue than choice silver. The value of wisdom, oh, that we would have wisdom. I lead in the way of righteousness in the midst of the paths of judgment. That I may cause those that love me to inherit substance. And I will fill their treasures. And now as it really is referring more directly to Jesus. The Lord possessed me in the beginning of his way. Before his works of old. I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was. When there were no depths, I was brought forth. When there was no fountains abounding with water. Before the mountains were settled, before the hills was, I brought forth. While as yet he had not made the earth, nor the fields, nor the highest part of the dust of the world. When he prepared the heavens, I was there. When he set the compass upon the face of the depth. When he established the clouds above. When he strengthened the fountains of the deep. When he gave to the sea his decree. When the waters should not pass his commandment. When he appointed the foundations of the earth. Then I was by him as one brought up with him. And I was daily his delight rejoicing always before him. Wisdom is speaking. It's existence from the beginning. The missing ingredient of the formula for the evolutionist is that intelligence that is found in the cell. That code that shows intelligence. And the evolutionist says that given enough time as matter interacts with matter it can produce anything. Just given time. I wonder how long we'd have to wait for a building like this to just come together just given time. How is it that we don't find buildings like this out in the middle of deserts? Out in uninhabited places? Certainly a building like this is much more simple than a human body or than a jackrabbit or a frog. The thing that is so marvelous about the life forms is the genetic code that is printed in every cell. That genetic code that has all of the information for the reproducing of the original product. I look at the human body. And as David said, we are fearfully and wonderfully made. And you think of the genetic code that's in a single cell of the human body. It is so complex that if you wrote out the information just wrote it out, the information in a single cell you could fill 1,000 volumes of 600 pages. Because the information that is there in that cell has every aspect of the human body coded in. How to create it. How to develop it. How to form little platelets when the body is cut so that they will rush into that cut area and will stop the flow of blood. Start building up until they form a dam and stop the flow of blood. And then even how to go ahead and repair the damaged tissue. What a machine. What if you had a car like that? You get in an accident, oh don't worry, in a couple of weeks the thing will straighten itself out. The dents will all be pushed out and they'll fill in themselves and the car will be like new in just a couple of weeks. Just nurse it along for a couple of weeks. Maybe even put it in the garage, give it a little rest and a couple of weeks it'll be fine. That's what the human body does. All of those factors for the repairing of itself. The replacing of the tissues. And all of that information, how to do it, is coded in that one little cell. And the code can be read. Deciphered. I thought it was interesting. How that our government is spending hundreds of millions of dollars trying to find out if there is intelligent life somewhere else in the universe. And so we have these antennas set up. And this antenna is designed to listen to the radio emissions out of space. Cosmic kind of signals that are coming from space. And what they are looking for is non-random radio emissions that can be deciphered and thus understood. And if they find that, that is proof that there is intelligence and intelligent beings out there in space somewhere. Non-random radio emissions that can be decoded into a message. That's exactly what you have in the human cell. In those DNA molecules, the non-random codes that are there that can be decoded into a message that would fill a thousand volumes of 600 pages. But the denial of the intelligence. Now, here wisdom is saying, look, I was there in the beginning. That's the key to the whole thing. It is the knowledge, the intelligence, the knowledge that is in that cell. You can't have the development of the cell without the code being there. And the code can't be created by accident. It's like going to a print shop and setting 10 tons of TNT in the typesetting room and just blow those things apart and hope that as they come together randomly you can just print them into the Encyclopedia Britannica. It doesn't happen. Intelligence, wisdom. I was there, wisdom said. The wisdom that is there in every living cell. It's manifested. And so wisdom speaks about being there in the beginning. When he prepared the heavens, when he established the clouds, he strengthened the fountains, the wisdom was there. And this code into the cell, which is so marvelous. Now therefore, hearken unto me, O ye children, for blessed are they who keep my ways. Wisdom is speaking to you. Listen to wisdom. Hear instruction and be wise, refuse it not. Blessed is the man who hears me, watching daily at my gates, waiting at the post of my door. For whosoever finds me finds life and shall obtain favor of the Lord. For he that sinneth against me wrongs his own soul, and all they that hate me love death. And again, personifying it, making it Christ, it surely speaks to us the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Finding Christ, you find life. You obtain favor of the Father. Sin against Christ, you're only wronging your own soul. And if you hate him, you love death. Continuing in the praise of wisdom, wisdom has builded her house. She has hewn out her seven pillars. She has killed her beasts. She has mingled her wine. She has also furnished her tables. She has set forth her maidens. She cries upon the highest places of the city. Whoso is simple, let him turn in hither. As for him that wanteth understanding, she says to him, Come and eat of my bread. Drink of the wine which I have mingled. Forsake the foolish and live. And go in the way of understanding. Wisdom is there. It's prepared for those that would seek it. The invitation is there for you to come, to learn. Now, we get into Proverbs. And this is a book of Proverbs. But as I said, not every verse is a Proverbs. Here is a Proverb. He that reproveth a scorner getteth to himself shame. If you reprove or rebuke a man who is a scorner, all they're going to do is turn on you. He that rebukes a wicked man gets himself a blot. That is, a black eye. So the encouragement or the instruction is, Reprove not a scorner, lest he hate thee. But rebuke a wise man, and he will love you. If you get a hold of a fellow who is a scorner, a fool, tell him, Hey, man, that's wrong. He's just going to turn on you. He's going to hate you. If you have a wise man, and you say, You know, that isn't the way that should be done. You should do it this way. A wise man will say, Oh, thank you. Appreciate that. So be careful who you rebuke. Give instruction to a wise man, and he will be yet wiser. Teach a just man, and he will increase in learning. These are Proverbs. We're getting several little Proverbs here in a row here. And this is why it's called the Book of Proverbs. And these are the things that Solomon said that brought him fame as authoring over 3,000 Proverbs. And then he declares, The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. You want to be wise? Learn to reverence God. Have that holy fear of God. That kind of fear that is not a craven kind of a fear where you're over in the corner just shaking and saying, Oh, I'm afraid God's going to come. But it's that respect, that reverence, that awe of God as you realize the greatness of God, the wisdom and the power of God. You look at the universe, and you're made aware of how powerful God is. And just that, Oh, the Lord is so great. That kind of fear. The knowledge of the holy is understanding, knowing God. For by me thy days shall be multiplied, and the years of thy life increased. If you are wise, you will be wise for yourself. But if you scorn, you alone shall bear it. Now, Solomon had these experiences, of course, with women. He knew them, I guess, pretty well, having 700 wives and 300 concubines. I guess you get to know a little bit about women. He had quite a bit to say, and he's going to say more before we get through with the Proverbs and some interesting things about women that he probably garnered out of his own experiences. But a foolish woman is clamorous. She is simple and knows nothing. Didn't have much respect. For she sits at the door of her house, on a seat in the high places of the city, to call passengers who go right on their ways. So there she is. She's loud. She's brash. As men pass by, she's calling to them. Whoso is simple, let him turn in hither. And as for him that wants understanding, she says to him, hey, stolen waters are sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasant. But he knows not that the dead are there and that her guests are in the depths of hell. Solomon's instructions. A lot of wisdom there. Chapter 10 begins with the phrase, the Proverbs of Solomon. Now, this is how Chapter 1 begins. However, in Chapter 1, it is an introduction to the book of the Proverbs of Solomon. We really don't get into many Proverbs until we get to Chapter 10. In Chapter 1, he gives us the purpose for Proverbs. Proverbs are intended to give instruction, to bring you wisdom and understanding. And having laid out this whole dissertation on the value and the importance of wisdom, now we begin the actual Proverbs. And so beginning with Chapter 10, each verse is a proverb. And in these proverbs, he is usually making contrast. And so you want to look for the contrast. For instance, the very first one, a wise son makes a glad father. How true that is. Fathers are proud of their sons when they display wisdom. And you feel like you've accomplished your purpose as a father when your son is wise. He makes a glad father. But a foolish son, contrast, is the heaviness of his mother. Looking upon that foolish son, her heart becomes heavy at his foolishness. How true that is. We recently had a dear saint of the Lord here at the church who really was destroyed by her foolish son. She died recently, and I believe that her death is directly attributable to the heaviness that her son brought upon her heart. Treasures of wickedness profit nothing. If you have gain by wickedness, then you're apt to lose also by wickedness. Several years ago, we had a member of the mafia who was coming to the church for a while. And for some reason, he sort of took a liking to me. He was an interesting fellow. He invited me over to his house one day. He had some things he wanted to open up and share from his heart. And he went over to his little safe, and he got out a wad of cash. And he said, See this. He said, I just ripped this off from a guy. About $100,000. And he said, But they all know now that I have it. And he said, So they're all working on me, and everyone's got a scam, and they're seeking to rip me off. And he said, I'm going to buy one of them. He said, They'll come along, and I'll be a sucker, and I'll buy it. And then the other guy, he'll have this for a while. But we'll all know who has it, and so we'll all work scams on him. And he said, This money just passes between us. And he said, So I'm the guy right now. They're all beating on my door, trying to rip me off with some scheme and all. And he said, It's just something that you hold for a while, but then it goes. And that's basically what the treasures of wickedness profit nothing. It's going to pass on. But righteousness delivereth from death. Now, I want you to notice that as he talks about righteousness, and he will in many of the Proverbs, righteousness becomes a part of the subject, and it's always contrasted with wickedness. And here it is with wickedness. Wickedness profits. The profit of wickedness is nothing, or profits nothing, treasures of wickedness, but righteousness. So the contrast between wickedness and righteousness. But so often, as he brings up the subject of righteousness, he will relate righteousness to life, and that is to eternal life, to spiritual life. And so righteousness delivereth from death. So it is that delivering from death, which, of course, is life. We'll return with more of our verse-by-verse study through the book of Proverbs in our next lesson. As Pastor Chuck Smith continues on the subject of righteousness, and we do hope you'll make plans to join us. But right now, I'd like to remind you that if you'd like to secure a copy of today's message, simply order Proverbs chapter 8, verse 12 when visiting the wordfortoday.org. And while there, we encourage you to browse through the many additional biblical resources by Pastor Chuck. You can also subscribe to the Word for Today podcast, or sign up for our email subscription. Once again, all this can be found at thewordfortoday.org. If you'd like to call, our toll-free number is 1-800-272-WORD. And our office hours are Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Pacific Time. Again, that's 1-800-272-9673. For those of you preferring to write, our mailing address is The Word for Today, P.O. Box 8000, Costa Mesa, California, 92628. And now, on behalf of The Word for Today, we'd like to thank all of you who share in supporting this ministry with your prayers and financial support. And be sure to join us again next time as Pastor Chuck continues his verse-by-verse study through the Bible. That's right here, on the next edition of The Word for Today. Now, once again, here's Pastor Chuck with today's closing comments. May the Lord be with you. May you have a great week. May you feel the anointing of God's Spirit upon your life and have that sense of God's presence as you go. That the Lord might deal with your heart, the issues of your life. That He might guide you in the right direction. Guide you in His path, the path of the just, the path of the righteous, the path of wisdom. And may God grant to you wisdom and understanding in His ways that you might walk with Him. Hi, this is Pastor Jerry Brown of U-Turn for Christ. Jesus delivered me from the addiction of drugs and alcohol. And if you or a loved one is struggling with any type of addiction, I'm here to tell you that Jesus can deliver you as well. Today, as a pastor, my heart breaks to see families and marriages destroyed because of the power of addiction. So it's with great love that I tell you about U-Turn for Christ, an affordable, Christ-centered ministry of restoration. Hi, this is Pastor Chuck. I'm well acquainted with Pastor Jerry and the ministry of U-Turn for Christ. It's my estimation that it is one of the most effective ministries I know to help people turn their lives around. Without reservation, I recommend this ministry. If you would like more information about U-Turn for Christ, please call us at 951-943-7097. Again, that's 951-943-7097. Or visit our website at U-Turn for Christ dot com. This program has been sponsored by the word for today in Costa Mesa, California.