In this sermon, Pastor Chuck Smith emphasizes the importance of wisdom and understanding in one's life. He encourages listeners to seek wisdom and not to forsake the instructions of a father. Pastor Chuck explains that the discovery of wisdom leads to happiness and that it is more valuable than silver. He also emphasizes the importance of doing good to others when one has the ability to do so. Throughout the sermon, Pastor Chuck references biblical passages, particularly from the book of Proverbs, to support his teachings on wisdom and righteousness.

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 hold you And His Spirit like a dove Will descend upon your life And make you whole Welcome to the Word for Today Featuring the Bible teaching of the late Pastor Chuck Smith Founder of the Calvary Chapel Movement This radio program is a verse-by-verse study through the entire Bible And on today's edition of the Word for Today Pastor Chuck continues to explain the benefits of wisdom As we pick up in Proverbs 3, verse 13 And now with today's message, here's Pastor Chuck Happy is the man that finds wisdom And the man that gets understanding So the discovery of wisdom, the result, the fruit of it is happiness For the merchandise of it is better than the merchandise of silver The gain of it is better than fine gold She is more precious, that is, wisdom and understanding More precious than rubies And all of the things that you can desire are not to be compared with her This is sort of giving you a background to some of the Proverbs that we're going to come to Wisdom and understanding are valuable They are precious, more precious than rubies And you can't compare anything with wisdom and understanding Length of days is in her right hand And in her left hand are riches and honor Her ways are ways of pleasantness And all of her paths are peace Now again, wisdom is personified and here in a feminine She is a tree of life to them that lay hold upon her And happy is everyone that retaineth her For the Lord by wisdom hath founded the earth And by understanding he established the heavens So if I come to wisdom and understanding, I'll come to an understanding of the Lord By wisdom he framed the earth, he founded the heavens by understanding By his knowledge the depths are broken up and the clouds drop down the dew My son, let not them depart from thine eyes Keep sound wisdom and discretion And they will be life unto thy soul and grace unto thy neck So again the instruction with the result Keep sound wisdom and discretion If you do, there'll be life to your soul, there'll be grace to your neck And then you will walk in the way safely, your foot will not stumble When you lie down you will not be afraid When you lie down your sleep will be sweet Now instruction again, don't be afraid of sudden fear Neither of the desolation of the wicked when it cometh God is going to bring his judgment upon the wicked Don't fear when the judgment begins to fall upon the wicked For the Lord will be your confidence And he will keep thy foot from being taken How glorious it is to walk with the Lord To walk in the understanding of God To walk in the knowledge of the Most High For the evil who forsake the Lord and forsake his way Their day is coming, the day of desolation is coming But we need not fear when that day comes Because God will keep us The Lord will be your confidence We'll come to a proverb The name of the Lord is a high tower The righteous runneth into it and are safe When the day of desolation comes The name of the Lord becomes your place of strength and defense It's a high tower, the righteous run into it I have many, many times just run into the name of the Lord When problems arose You're facing a crisis, an immediate situation You've got the brakes on, your car is skidding And you're heading for the wall And there's just no way, you're just sort of bracing yourself And you say, oh Jesus, that's all you've got time to say And somehow, you close your eyes and you wait for the smash But the smash doesn't come You know, you open your eyes How did I ever stop? The Lord is your confidence He'll sustain, he'll keep Now, withhold not good from them to whom it is due When it is in the power of your hand to do it If you have the capacity to do good to someone You have the ability to do it Then don't withhold that good And don't say to your neighbor Come back again tomorrow And I'll give it to you When you have it by your side Don't put him off Devise not evil against your neighbor Seeing that he dwells securely by you Don't strive with a man without cause If he has done you no harm Don't go out and pick a fight Don't go out and meddle in problems that don't pertain to you Envy thou not the oppressor And choose none of his ways For the frorward is an abomination to the Lord But his secret is with the righteous One man is an abomination to God, the frorward But God's secret is with the righteous The curse of the Lord is in the house of the wicked Now we get into contrast here And this is a way of creating Proverbs By putting contrasting thoughts together The curse of the Lord is in the house of the wicked But he blesses the habitation of the just Surely he scorneth the scorners But he gives grace to the lowly Both Peter and James quote this latter portion He gives grace to the humble The wise shall inherit glory But shame shall be the promotion of fools So getting out now into these Proverbs As you get into these contrasting thoughts and ideas By which wisdom, instruction in wisdom Righteousness, judgment, equity are given to us As we move on into this next portion We're going to be getting into just a lot of good wisdom And so Proverbs chapter 4 We continue the instructions Hear children the instructions of a father And attend that you might know understanding For I give you good doctrine Forsake not my law For I was my father's son Now Solomon is speaking And thus he is speaking concerning his father David Now there are indications in the scripture That David was not the best father There were areas of failure It would seem that he was not a good disciplinarian Concerning one of his sons that rebelled against him It said that David never crossed him Never said any word that would cross him And the son ultimately rebelled against David But you know I think that through the years We learn an awful lot as parents I feel that we almost owe an apology to our first daughter As we were learning how to be parents I thought I knew all the answers on parenthood Until I had my own children And then I realized I didn't know any answers On how to raise kids I learned through the years how to raise kids Just pray like everything But by the time our last daughter came Who was a late comer All the children were in school And Kay and I were just so lonesome at home We talked it over and decided let's have one more And so the Lord gave us our daughter Cheryl Well by then I knew a lot more about parenting Than I did when we had our first three children And I think that I was probably a better father to her Having now experience and understanding in parenthood I was more patient with her Realizing this is the last one I took more time with her And of course sort of growing up for the first five years At home alone the other kids were in school We were able to devote more time to her And it was just I think that I was a better father A wiser father for sure by the time she came along This could be the case with David and Solomon That through the years David in his own maturity Became a better father Because he took the time To sit down with Solomon And to instruct Solomon Give him good wise counsel Now it is interesting that Solomon Then passes on to his sons The counsel that he received from his father And that's pretty much the way God intended it to be That we pass down from generation to generation Basic truths The knowledge of righteousness And of judgment And so Solomon is now sharing The truths that he was taught by his father David I was my father's son tender And only beloved in the sight of my mother Who of course was Bathsheba The first child that was born of their adulterous relationship Of course died And then Solomon came along And he became just the only beloved In the sight of his mother But my father taught me also And he said unto me Let your heart retain my words Keep my commandments And live Really the purpose of commandments is life It's a better life I think that many times Children look at commandments as restrictions Keeping me from life Keeping me from a good time And not having wisdom and discretion They see the commandments of God as something restrictive Rather than something that is in reality Liberating you But giving you the confines In which you should live So that if you go beyond these confines You're actually going into the realms of death You're going into things that destroy And so my father taught me To just keep his words Keep his commandments and live And to get wisdom Get understanding Forget it not Neither decline from the words of my mouth Forsake her not, that is wisdom And she shall preserve thee Love her And she shall keep thee Forsake her not Love her For he said wisdom is the principal thing Therefore get wisdom And with all of your getting Get understanding Now the purpose of the educational system today Is basically to impart knowledge to people But knowledge without wisdom Can be folly There are many smart people But they're not very wise In fact I'm amazed at what dumb things smart people do And I'm amazed at what dumb things smart people believe I'm amazed That men of great education Can believe that you can have design without a designer I'm amazed that people believe such folly that The human body with all of its intricacies And mechanisms and facets Could be the product of blind chance That you could have this intricate mechanism Without an intelligent designer behind it And yet men of knowledge believe that But that's because they're not wise It's sort of like the mother instructing her child said Honey, when you ain't got no education You just got to use your brains And that's what wisdom is all about Just using your brains And so Solomon recognized the importance of having wisdom It's the principal thing It's more important than knowledge Because if you have knowledge and not wisdom Then your knowledge can lead you astray It can't be of any value Wisdom is the proper application of knowledge And it's sad that our educational system Does not devote itself more into bringing wisdom Instead of just imparting knowledge Wisdom is the principal thing Get wisdom Don't forget it Forsake her not Wisdom will preserve you Love wisdom She'll keep you Exalt her And she shall promote thee She shall bring thee to honor When you embrace her So the importance of getting wisdom She shall give to thy head An ornament of grace A crown of glory she will deliver to you So hear, O my son, and receive my sayings In the years of your life shall be many And the whole idea of the law, the commandments Is to teach us the way of life And a long, good life You remember David in the first psalm Declares that Blessed is the man Who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly Nor stands in the way of sinners Nor sits in the seat of the scornful But his delight is in the law of the Lord And he meditates in that day and night The effect will be he will be like a tree That's planted by the rivers of water That brings forth his fruit in his season His leaf also shall not wither That's talking about a good, long life And whatsoever he does will prosper So David is instructing Solomon In the importance of wisdom Now, this is interesting Because you remember when God Came to Solomon when he ascended to the throne At the death of his father David And the Lord said to Solomon Ask of me what I shall give unto you And so when Solomon prayed He said Lord grant unto me wisdom His father said get wisdom son That's the principal thing And so when he was given his request Now if God said you just ask What would you like today You know we would ask for stupid things But Solomon asked for wisdom And the Lord said Inasmuch as you didn't ask for riches Or you didn't ask for fame But you asked for wisdom I not only will give you wisdom But I will also bless you with wealth And with other things But you see wisdom is the door To these other things also For then when you have them You will use them wisely There are a lot of people that have a lot of things But they don't use them wisely at all Wisdom, that's the principal thing And so Solomon evidently really took to heart What his father said He's passing it on now to his son Now in verse 10 Solomon takes up his own discourse Hear oh my son and receive my sayings And the years of your life shall be many Again long life associated With the keeping of these commandments Or these rules or these principles That he is teaching If you give heed He said I have taught you the way of wisdom I have led thee in the right paths And when you go Your steps will not be straightened or narrowed You will not be confined If you're wise you'll be able to see many avenues You won't have tunnel vision But you'll be able to consider wisely the options The various options that are there You'll not be in a straightened path And when you run You will not stumble So take fast hold of instruction Don't let her go Keep her For she is your life And he's talking about the basic issues of life A good life Enter not into the path And now here are the instructions The instructions that will Lead you into life Into a good long life Enter not into the path of the wicked And go not in the way of evil men Avoid it Pass not by it Turn from it And pass away So don't get entrapped in evil Or in wickedness Or with evil people For they will not sleep Until they have done their mischief And their sleep is taken away Unless they cause someone to fall They're bent towards evil For they eat the bread of wickedness And they drink the wine of violence But the path of the just In contrast now the wicked Eating the bread of wickedness Drinking the wine of violence Doing mischief But the path of the just Is as a shining light That shineth more and more Unto the perfect day What a beautiful scripture The path of the just It's like a shining light That gets brighter and brighter Leading us into the perfect day 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 with more On the security in wisdom And we do hope you'll make plans to join us Now, for those of you that would like to Secure a copy of today's message Simply order Proverbs 3, verse 13 When visiting thewordfortoday.org While you're there, we encourage you to Browse 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 wish 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 If you prefer 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 And now, once again, here's Pastor Chuck With today's closing prayer Father, we thank you for the words of wisdom Instruction in righteousness and in truth And in equity May we walk, Lord, in that righteousness And in that truth May we incline our hearts to understanding To knowledge and to wisdom And that we might, Lord, receive the rewards Of the righteous In Jesus' name Amen The Word for Today has put together a booklet series By Pastor Chuck called The Answers for Today It addresses questions pertaining to hot topics Such as, what does God say about alternative lifestyles? If God is love, then why are people so against him In the first place? And of course, the always asked questions Why does God allow suffering? Or what is the rapture? And when is Jesus coming again? It's time these questions are put to rest And we help our loved ones come to a simple understanding Of the Bible And how to have a deeper relationship with Jesus Christ To order The Answers for Today booklets individually Or collectively as a set You can call The Word for Today at 1-800-272-9673 Or you can order them online at www.thewordfortoday.org I want to encourage you Order these to keep on hand Because you never know When you're going to get asked that question This program has been sponsored by The Word for Today In Costa Mesa, California