Please turn with me in the Word of God to the book of Proverbs, to Proverbs 23. We will read there verses 12 through 26 and then skip down to chapter 24, reading verses 13 and 14. So we begin our reading at Proverbs 23, verse 12. Let us hear God's own word. Apply your heart to instruction and your ears to words of knowledge. Do not withhold discipline from a child. If you punish him with the rod, he will not die. Punish him with the rod and save his soul from death. My son, if your heart is wise, then my heart will be glad. My inmost being will rejoice when your lips speak what is right. Do not let your heart envy sinners, but always be zealous for the fear of the Lord. There is surely a future hope for you, and your hope will not be cut off. Listen, my son, and be wise, and keep your heart on the right path. Do not join those who drink too much wine or gorge themselves on meat, for drunkards and gluttons become poor, and drowsiness clothes them in rags. Listen to your father who gave you life, and do not despise your mother when she is old. Buy the truth and do not sell it. Get wisdom, discipline, and understanding. The father of a righteous man has great joy. He who has a wise son delights in him. May your father and mother be glad. May she who gave you birth rejoice. My son, give me your heart, and let your eyes keep to my ways. And then skipping down to chapter 24 at verse 13. Eat honey, my son, for it is good. Honey from the comb is sweet to your taste. Know also that wisdom is sweet to your soul. If you find it, there is a future hope for you, and your hope will not be cut off. So far the reading of God's Word. As many of you know, in the Jewish calendar, September marks the beginning of the new year. And it always seems to me this time of year there's a sort of wisdom to that. Because in many ways, for us in our society, September seems more the starting of a new year than January 1. September marks the beginning of the church educational year. It begins the year for grammar schools and high schools and colleges. It seems as if the rhythm of summer is coming to an end and the rhythm of the fall and the rest of the year begins to set in. And so, Happy New Year. And I thought it would be good to think this evening a little bit as we begin a new educational year, both at the church and at the Christian school, to pause for a minute and think a little bit about Christian education and wisdom. The church devotes itself with a good deal of energy to the matter of Christian education, doesn't it? We received that handout this morning listing all the Sunday school and catechism classes. Think of all of the time that goes in week by week to preparing for those classes, for teaching those classes. And, of course, the educational work of the church doesn't go on just on Sunday, but it goes on at various points during the week as well through a whole range of youth work, of adult study groups. And it's a lot of time and energy that goes into those things. And it's a wonderful thing to see how many people are willing to volunteer to be involved in those projects. And so it's appropriate to pause and think at the beginning of this new educational year, why do we do it? What's it all about? What do we hope to see as a fruit of it? And there's perhaps a particular appropriateness to pausing at the beginning of this year in light of the fact that Calvin Christian schools are celebrating their 50th anniversary, which is a most remarkable accomplishment to think of all of the dedication, all of the sacrifice, all of the commitment that has gone into 50 years of providing Christian school education here in this community for Christian children. It's a very remarkable thing, something that I know the school will be celebrating throughout this year, most appropriately, but also something that we should think about, not just to celebrate, but to remember the meaning and foundation of this great enterprise. The enterprise of both church and school to provide Christian education. And what Proverbs reminds us that in a very profound sense, The church and the school are involved in this work to help parents fulfill their responsibility. You notice that in this text, it is a father speaking to a son. Proverbs throughout it recognizes the foundational responsibility of parents to provide for the education of their children. And in that sense, the church is helping parents. in the task to which parents are called to to see that the faith is passed from generation to generation. And the Christian school, as we have understood it, is an extension of the Christian home. It is carrying out for the home activities that often parents are not sure they are fully equipped to carry out for themselves. I know when our children were reaching school age, the homeschooling movement was just beginning. And Mary Ellen and I did some talking about that. Should we homeschool our children? And we concluded we really weren't up to it. We weren't sure that we could manage that. And I think particularly when our children reached junior high, we saw the wisdom of that decision with particular clarity. But however much Hillary Clinton comes in for criticism, she's right when she says it takes a village to raise a child. It's the primary responsibility of parents, but parents need help. And we see that help provided by the church and that help provided by the school as an extension of the family. And it's a wonderful thing to be able to remember and to celebrate. And so, tonight, we look into this chapter 23 of Proverbs to think about how the home and the church and the school are to cooperate in the cause of wisdom. Because ultimately, we invest all of this time and energy and money into the cause of education. Not primarily for job training. Not primarily even so that our children can learn all sorts of discrete facts and skills. But we devote all of this time and energy ultimately that our children might be wise. That theme of wisdom, of course, is what the book of Proverbs is all about. That our children might be wise. And this text helps us think about what that wisdom really is. It doesn't say everything about wisdom, but it says several very important things about wisdom. And the first thing that it draws us to when we think about wisdom in Christian education is the very heart of wisdom in education. What is the heart of wisdom? And I think this chapter and others in this book remind us that the very heart of wisdom is the fear of the Lord. Verse 17, let not your heart envy sinners, but continue in the fear of the Lord all the day. And those of you at all familiar with the book of Proverbs know that several times in the book of Proverbs we are told that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. We will never be wise if we do not fear the Lord. Now, I suspect that phrase, the fear of the Lord, has become somewhat unpopular, maybe even sounding slightly antiquated in our day. Do we fear the Lord? Is the fear of the Lord before our eyes? Is that a subject that comes naturally to our minds when we think of wisdom and when we think of education and when we think of living in the world? The fear of the Lord. What does the Bible mean when it talks about the fear of the Lord? Well, it is a phrase often used in relation to the greatness of our God. The awesome, the awesome power of our God. Think, for example, of Psalm 33. Let all the earth fear the Lord. Let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him. Why? For he spoke, and it came to be. He commanded, and it stood firm. What an amazing statement that is. What an amazing power that points to. The power of God so infinite that what he speaks, he accomplishes. What he commands comes to be. Nothing can resist him. Nothing can stand in his way. Nothing can ultimately oppose him. This is the God whom we are to know and fear. There needs to be respect for such a God. Respect becomes a kind of namby-pamby, weak word, isn't it? before such power, such glory. Now, we often want to go very quickly and say, well, fear of the Lord doesn't mean to be terrified of Him. Well, sometimes it does. When the wicked have no fear of God before their eyes, they ought to be terrified. Isaiah 26 says, of the wicked man, he does not see the majesty of God. O Lord, your hand is lifted up, but they do not see it. How many tragically live in this world with no fear of God before their face? They don't think about God. They don't react to God in their decision making or in their living. God is simply irrelevant to so many. And Isaiah is saying his arm is raised in judgment. But they don't see it. And the great task of Christian education is to try to ensure that from generation to generation, God's people see it. God's people get it. That the God with whom we have to do is awesome. in His power and in His holiness. And there ought to be a fear before Him, a measure of trembling in His presence. And I fear that in a lot of the church today, I don't mean this congregation, but I mean in the church generally, there doesn't seem to be much fear of God. Coming into the presence of God seems to often have been trivialized as if it's an easy thing, a happy, clappy thing. And we wonder, is there no fear of God before their eyes? And when we think of the fear of God and how the fear of God should be alive to us, a reality in our lives, Perhaps there's no better place to focus and to meditate than on the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. What a fearful spectacle that is. A fearful spectacle of how righteous and holy God is. That he must go to such lengths to provide such a sacrifice and substitute for sinners. how can we trivialize our relationship with God when we see his own display and his own action of what it costs for him to love sinners this is brought home to us isn't it particularly as we see several of the gospel writers record for us that But as Jesus was crucified, one of the criminals crucified next to him railed at him. There is the eternal and pure Son of God suffering an unjust punishment for sinners. And the criminal looks at him with no fear of God before his eyes and says, Why don't you help us? Who are you? Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us. And the other criminal rebuked him. Do you not fear God? Since you are under the same sentence of condemnation and we justly. But this man has done nothing wrong. You see, the world walks by the cross and has no fear of God, no trembling that God gave up His own Son to save sinners. How serious a matter is this? And we have Christian education so that our children will come to recognize how serious this is. So that they might have a fear of God in their hearts. Not only fear, we want them as well to have a love of God and a realization of the mercy of God and the grace of God, but really appreciating that that mercy of God comes only in the context of knowing the fear of God, which is the beginning of wisdom. And so our prayer, our hope for the church's educational work and the school's educational work and the home's educational work is that it might lay this foundation in the hearts of our children that they might fear God. That needs to be the commitment of the heart that leads to the character of life. We read in Deuteronomy 10, And now Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways, To love Him. To serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. And to keep the commandments and statutes of the Lord which I am commanding you today for your good. I don't think Moses here is speaking of the way to justification. But he's speaking of the way in which we live out our lives as a redeemed and saved people. With the fear of the Lord leading us to walk in His ways and to love Him and to serve Him with all our heart, with all our soul. This is what we hope for in the educational task to which we're called. And so consider these words of Psalm 25, verse 14. The friendship of the Lord is for those who fear Him and He makes known to them His covenant. You see, the fear of the Lord doesn't leave us alienated from the Lord. The fear of the Lord doesn't become a wall between us and the Lord. The fear of the Lord is the appropriate path to friendship with the Lord, to covenant faithfulness between us and Him, covenant love between us and Him. That's what we long for, that friendship with the Lord that is for those who really understand him and his ways and his mercy in the cross of Jesus Christ. And our passion for education in the church and the school and the home ought to be that these great truths might live in the hearts of our children. In this relatively brief passage, the word heart, the heart of the Son is referred to five times. we don't want these things just in our heads. We don't want people who can just memorize the catechism, although that's a good thing. But we want these great truths of wisdom and the fear of the Lord to penetrate to the very heart and soul of our children. And that's why we have believed that the educational work of the church and of the school are so crucial. It's amazing, isn't it, when you think about it, what a relatively short time parents have to form the minds and hearts and lives of their children. It seems they're born and impossible. Then all of a sudden, they're semi-rational, and then they're out the door. And our passion is that in this brief time, The home and the school and the church will cooperate So that the heart of wisdom will be communicated That our children will know to fear the Lord Well, this passage talks not only about the heart of wisdom But it talks also about the hard work of wisdom Wisdom doesn't come automatically Education doesn't come automatically. You boys and girls know that, don't you? You have to work at it. You have to give time to it. You have to devote yourself to it. Adults who go back to school after they've been out of school for a while find that it's not so very easy to go back and to get back into those habits and into those disciplines of learning. But this text talks about how we need to learn. Verse 12 talks about applying yourself to knowledge. our educational work in the church as well as in the school shouldn't just have a talking head and students who can sit there and pay no attention and then leave there needs to be application there needs to be work there needs to be dedication and so I hope you parents in particular will encourage young people in catechism to do their homework to learn their catechism to see this as a serious and important point in their lives. Apply yourself, the text says. So there needs to be an internal commitment on the part of students and then this text says there needs to be an external encouragement on the part of parents and teachers. The famous text that we find here in verse 13 and 14. Do not withhold discipline from a child. If you strike him with a rod, he will not die. If you strike him with a rod, you will save his soul from death. one commentator remarked on this text is it not better that the flesh should smart than that the soul should die there needs to be external encouragement I don't think we necessarily need to pass out rods to catechism teachers but there has to be a seriousness you see Not only must the student apply himself or herself to education, but the parents and the teachers must apply themselves to this great task. And both must do that because we value what's happening there. Buy the truth and sell it not, this text says. And what that means is the very most important investment we can make, the most valuable investment we can make, is in Christian education. Stock markets rise and fall. You probably know that. Real estate markets rise and fall. Gold markets rise and fall. Even pork bellies rise and fall. but the truth is an investment that never declines in value but only increases in value and so we're called to learn and we're called by this text to follow follow the way of the Lord this text says there's a path that the Lord has laid out before his people walk that path this text tells us And it goes on to say in a very interesting way, this father speaking to this son says, the path that the Lord calls us to follow is the path that I as your parent have already walked. So follow me. And that should be a very sober moment for all of us who are parents or teachers here. Can we say to our children and to our students, Follow me, because I have walked in the way of the Lord. Follow me, because I have pursued the path of the Lord. When we look into our own hearts and lives, it's sometimes hard to think that we can say that, isn't it? We see our own weakness. We see our own sin. We see our own frailty so very clearly. And we understand for ourselves how great is our need of the mercy of Jesus Christ. And that needs to inform our relations with our children too, doesn't it? As we hope for mercy, we need to communicate there's mercy for them as well. But Proverbs is here laying before us a great duty as parents that we should walk in a way that will attract our children to follow in the way of the Lord. And that means for us as parents too, we have to keep learning. We have to provide a model of a Christian life where there's an eager desire to be knowing more about the Word of God, about the fear of God, about the cross of Christ and His grace. That has to be kept clearly before our eyes in our lives as adults. so boys and girls next time your mom or dad says how's your catechism going maybe you can say to them I'm working hard at it what are you working hard at now maybe that would be just a little fresh or a little rude maybe you can find a kinder way of putting that but you see education is for all of us as God's people to be growing and developing. The heart of education is the fear of God and it's hard work. And in pursuing that, we must be sure not to follow the way of the wicked. One of the great strengths of the wisdom of the Psalms and of the book of Proverbs is to contrast over and over again the way of the righteous with the way of the wicked. And the wisdom of that is because the way of the wicked is so often before our faces. It is so tempting and it needs to be addressed very explicitly here in this text. Drunkenness, gluttony, laziness. These are the ways of the world. These are the ways of those who are self-centered and have no fear of God before their eyes. And this text says, don't walk that way. It leads to misery now and worse hereafter. Walk rather in the way of the Lord. And when we walk in the way of the Lord, there is a wonderful harvest to wisdom. Just in case you missed it, we've talked about the heart of wisdom and the hard work of wisdom and now the harvest of wisdom. What is the harvest of wisdom? There's a harvest right now, this text says, And the harvest that we enjoy right now is sweetness, the sweetness of wisdom. That's what we read in chapter 24 at verse 13. My son, eat honey, for it is good, and the drippings of the honeycomb are sweet to your taste. Know that wisdom is sweet to your soul. When catechism seems boring and the school day during the week seems long, remember that the wisdom you can glean is as sweet as candy, is as delightful as a lovely piece of cake. That's what the psalmist is saying. There is hard work to wisdom, but the harvest of it is a marvelous sweetness that children and parents should be able to enjoy together. And that sweetness in the life of the child brings joy to the whole family. It's a fascinating theme through this text, the joy that comes to mother and father when wisdom is manifested in children. many of us have had the privilege of seeing that born out in our own lives that's what we pray for all of our children that that harvest of the sweetness and joy of wisdom might be ours right now but this text reminds us that it's not just for now that we have believed it's not just for now that we have become wise in the fear of the Lord But twice this text says, once in chapter 23, once in chapter 24, that if we have this wisdom, there will be a future. And your hope will not be cut off. This is what wisdom ultimately leads us to. The hope and the promise that we have a future. that will never be cut off, that will never end, that will live forever with God. Psalm 34 says, The eyes of the Lord are toward the righteous and his ears toward their cry. The face of the Lord is against those who do evil to cut off the memory of them from the earth. Whatever present pleasures the wicked may enjoy, they have no future. they do not have a hope that cannot be cut off. But for all those of us who have learned the wisdom of God in Jesus Christ, there's a future. There's a future where our hope, hope of a new heaven and a new earth will be fulfilled. And that's what's promised to us here in these marvelous verses in Proverbs 23. 3. So I hope tonight that however you're involved in Christian education, in the home, in the church, in the school, you need to be involved. However you're involved, you'll see the great calling to help the church from generation to generation be wise. We know that wisdom ultimately will come only by the work of the Holy Spirit. But the Holy Spirit uses us. He hears our prayers for wisdom. And he uses us as we work for wisdom. And he's promised that he will provide that wisdom from generation to generation as home and church and school work together to educate the generations in wisdom. Amen. let us pray Lord our God we pray that you would keep clearly before our eyes your greatness and your glory your power and your majesty so that we might stand before you with a wise fear which also knows in Jesus Christ the the depths and the heights and the breadth of your love for us. And we pray, O Lord, that in the church and in the school and in the home, the cause of wisdom might go forth in godly education in this year. And as we have seen you act so wonderfully through generations past, So may we be privileged to see your work in our time and in our generations. That the faith may be passed on. And that the rising generation might stand with us in faith, in godly fear, in love for you, in a confidence in the great work of Jesus Christ upon the cross. For it is in him alone that we hope and in him alone that we have a future. Hear us and bless us, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.