IF THOU WILT

READING: Prov 2:1-11

1 My son, if thou wilt receive my words, and hide my commandments with thee;
2 So that thou incline thine ear unto wisdom, and apply thine heart to understanding;
3 Yea, if thou criest after knowledge, and liftest up thy voice for understanding;
4 If thou seekest her as silver, and searchest for her as for hid treasures;
5 Then shalt thou understand the fear of the LORD, and find the knowledge of God.
6 For the LORD giveth wisdom: out of his mouth cometh knowledge and understanding.
7 He layeth up sound wisdom for the righteous: he is a buckler to them that walk uprightly.
8 He keepeth the paths of judgment, and preserveth the way of his saints.
9 Then shalt thou understand righteousness, and judgment, and equity; yea, every good path.
10 When wisdom entereth into thine heart, and knowledge is pleasant unto thy soul;
11 Discretion shall preserve thee, understanding shall keep thee:

Ps 119:10-11 With my whole heart have I sought thee: O let me not wander from thy commandments. Thy
word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.

I. IF THOU WILT RECEIVE MY WORDS.

A. Willingness to learn God’s word is essential to spiritual survival.
1. Prov 1:2-7
2 To know wisdom and instruction; to perceive the words of understanding;
3 To receive the instruction of wisdom, justice, and judgment, and equity;
4 To give subtilty to the simple, to the young man knowledge and discretion.
5 A wise man will hear, and will increase learning; and a man of understanding shall attain unto wise counsels:
6 To understand a proverb, and the interpretation; the words of the wise, and their dark sayings.
7 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction.

2. Job 22:21-23 Acquaint now thyself with Him, and be at peace: thereby good shall come unto thee.
Receive, I pray thee, the law from His mouth, and lay up His words in thine heart. If thou return to the
Almighty, thou shalt be built up, thou shalt put away iniquity far from thy tabernacles.

B. Gladly receiving the word leads to salvation.

1. Acts 2:38-41 Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of
Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. For the promise is
unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call.
And with many other words did he testify and exhort, saying, Save yourselves from this untoward
generation. Then they that gladly received his word were baptized: and the same day there were
added unto them about three thousand souls.

2. Acts 10:42-43 And he commanded us to preach unto the people, and to testify that it is He which
was ordained of God to be the Judge of quick and dead. To Him give all the prophets witness, that
through His name whosoever believeth in Him shall receive remission of sins.

C. Receiving the word with a good heart will enable one to save others.
1. Mark 4:20 And these are they which are sown on good ground; such as hear the word, and receive
it,and bring forth fruit, some thirtyfold, some sixty, and some an hundred.
II. IF THOU WILT INCLINE THINE EAR UNTO WISDOM.
A. Where can we find wisdom?
1. Job 28:20-28
20 Whence then cometh wisdom? and where is the place of understanding?
21 Seeing it is hid from the eyes of all living, and kept close from the fowls of the air.
22 Destruction and death say, We have heard the fame thereof with our ears.
23 God understandeth the way thereof, and he knoweth the place thereof.
24 For he looketh to the ends of the earth, and seeth under the whole heaven;
25 To make the weight for the winds; and he weigheth the waters by measure.
26 When he made a decree for the rain, and a way for the lightning of the thunder:
27 Then did he see it, and declare it; he prepared it, yea, and searched it out.
28 And unto man he said, Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom; and to depart from evil is understanding.

2. Prov 8:1-14
1 Doth not wisdom cry? and understanding put forth her voice?
2 She standeth in the top of high places, by the way in the places of the paths.
3 She crieth at the gates, at the entry of the city, at the coming in at the doors.
4 Unto you, O men, I call; and my voice is to the sons of man.
5 O ye simple, understand wisdom: and, ye fools, be ye of an understanding heart.
6 Hear; for I will speak of excellent things; and the opening of my lips shall be right things.
7 For my mouth shall speak truth; and wickedness is an abomination to my lips.
8 All the words of my mouth are in righteousness; there is nothing froward or perverse in them.
9 They are all plain to him that understandeth, and right to them that find knowledge.
10 Receive my instruction, and not silver; and knowledge rather than choice gold.
11 For wisdom is better than rubies; and all the things that may be desired are not to be compared to it.
12 I wisdom dwell with prudence, and find out knowledge of witty inventions.
13 The fear of the LORD is to hate evil: pride, and arrogancy, and the evil way, and the froward mouth, do I
hate.
14 Counsel is mine, and sound wisdom: I am understanding; I have strength.

C. How do we get this wisdom?

1. James 1:5-7 If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and
upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that
wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he
shall receive any thing of the Lord.

III. IF THOU WILT APPLY THINE HEART TO UNDERSTANDING

A. We must work toward understanding God’s word and will.
1. Ps 119:33-34 Teach me, O LORD, the way of thy statutes; and I shall keep it unto the end. Give me
understanding, and I shall keep thy law; yea, I shall observe it with my whole heart.

B. Our blessed position of having God’s will revealed through the Scriptures should give us insight.
1. Luke 24:44-49 And he said unto them, These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was
yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the
prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me. Then opened he their understanding, that they might
understand the scriptures, And said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it behoved Christ to
suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day: And that repentance and remission of sins should be
preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. And ye are witnesses of these things.
And, behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you: but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be
endued with power from on high.

C. Understanding will give us a defense.

1. Eph 5:15-17 See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, Redeeming the time,
because the days are evil. Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is.
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IV. IF THOU WILT CRY AFTER KNOWLEDGE.
A. The lack of knowledge leads to spiritual destruction.
1. Hos 4:6 My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge,
I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy
God, I will also forget thy children.

B. Knowledge of the God’s truth leads to a beneficial relationship with God.

1. 2 Peter 1:2-4 Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of
Jesus our Lord, According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and
godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue: Whereby are given
unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature,
having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.

2. Col 3:9-10 Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds; And have
put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him:

C. We must demand the absolute truth.

1. 1 Peter 2:1-2 Wherefore laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all
evil speakings, As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby:

D. God demands it.

1. Hos 6:6 For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt
offerings.

V. THEN DISCRETION SHALL PRESERVE THEE AND UNDERSTANDING SHALL KEEP THEE.
A. Discretion is a praiseworthy attribute.
1. Prov 11:22 As a jewel of gold in a swine's snout, so is a fair woman which is without discretion .

2. Ps 112:5 A good man sheweth favour, and lendeth: he will guide his affairs with discretion .

B. All these things added together lead to our spiritual preservation.

1. Prov 2:9-11 Then shalt thou understand righteousness, and judgment, and equity; yea, every
good path. When wisdom entereth into thine heart, and knowledge is pleasant unto thy soul;
Discretion shall preserve thee, understanding shall keep thee:

2. Prov 19:11 The discretion of a man deferreth his anger; and it is his glory to pass over a
transgression.

C. Understanding makes obedience easier.

1. Ps 119:73 Thy hands have made me and fashioned me: give me understanding , that I may learn
thy commandments.

2. Col 1:9-11 For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to
desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual
understanding; That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every
good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God; Strengthened with all might, according to his
glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness;