Book: Proverbs

The Benefits When Governments Uphold Justice and the Folly of Those That Don’t

In this sermon, Pastor Joe Babij examines select verses from Proverbs 29 regarding the benefits of true justice for society. Along with considering some of the cultural issues facing Christians today, Pastor Babij outlines three benefits for a government/society that practices righteousness:

1. The Benefit of Happiness (v. 2)
2. The Benefit of Stability (v. 4)
3. The Benefit of Social Concern (v. 7)

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okay this morning i want you to take your bibles and turn to proverbs 29.

between uh books of the bible just got done with ii peter heading to jude i’d like to do some other things and one of the things that have been on my heart is some things about what happened some of the things that are happening in the culture and also are happening happened last year because of covet and just wanting to talk about from scripture the benefits when governments uphold justice in the folly of those that don’t but let me pray first lord thank you this morning for bringing us here together thank you lord for the warm weather and uh nice weather that you’ve given us thank you lord that we’re able to meet together without masks if we don’t have to wear one and the lord also with the word of god and the fellowship of believers without all the restrictions and and i thank you for that and i pray lord you continue to bless us and encourage us and move us on so we can uh serve you with our whole heart and i pray you would make us attentive this morning to the word of god and help us to understand and put it into practice and i pray in christ’s name amen now the apostle paul told us in the book of romans that god ordained governments and that governments are to uphold the line of justice all of us are aware and concerned that our government would do the right thing so that a sense of balance and well-being is maintained throughout the nation now when justice is maintained the people can expect to experience certain positive benefits to life but where justice is not maintained the people can expect to experience certain negative backlashes to life when it when justice breaks down the proverbs are calling all people to live in the fear of god that’s how it starts off in chapter one so as to live righteously everybody who’s on this earth is responsible to the creator the wise who desire to live this way will always be the su stability of a country and of governments but the fact is all people are not righteous in this way they do not fear god they have turned to their own ways this lord’s day let’s examine some of the positive benefits when justice is maintained from the book of proverbs and then identify the backlash when it is not maintained chapter 29 of proverbs reveals really three positive benefits when justice is maintained in society when it is present even in small degrees it makes life much more livable when there is the fear of yahweh there also exists righteousness well-being and security now before i look at the text there are some things i need to mention about the book of proverbs in my study of proverbs i have found there are certain observations that are helpful so you handle the book correctly the first observation is this it is it is teaching about wisdom wisdom means being skillful and successful in one’s relationships and responsibilities it involves following the creator’s principles of order in a moral universe this order manifests itself in god’s wisdom which is available to all people so to the extent that man follows this order if they do they are wise heeding the wisdom of the book of proverbs then brings harmony to one’s life the contrast failure to heed god’s divine design results in disorder lack of compliance with god’s wise ways brings unpleasant and often disastrous consequences a second observation is this there’s a certain nature to proverbs a proverb is a brief saying that is used to communicate much truth in a concise and a striking way truth that is expressed as caught by the mind and retained by the memory it’s meant to be remembered that’s why there’s pithy’s short sayings so these observations of life they are generally true but not iron clad promises so don’t ever take pr proverbs as promises iron-clad promises they have truth in it but they are not ironclad promises proverbs deals with generalities while job in ecclesiastes deals with the exceptions a third observation is that solomon who wrote most of the proverbs had a world view in mind and his world view included god as the creator the universe is yahweh’s creation and because the lord created the world in a purposeful way the world is not random and meaningless the order that god established when he made the world provides the ground for human significance in this world he also included order in his writings that yahweh is sovereignly in control of the world there is a predictable relationship between acts and consequences which holds true in most situations in life this order encouraged the search of the teacher this wise teacher to regulate life in accordance with the intrinsic order already in the universe and then he included also in his worldview a rationality that the lord’s world is knowable yet it is mysterious we can’t know everything but we can know everything that god wants us to know and so because yahweh created the world and he is sovereignly in control of it the world is knowable at least in part that means that the universe manifests intelligent design in its order and this fact is the foundation for human understanding of the cosmos that we live in he also included in his world view the fear of god humans must reverence god in their lives the fear of the lord is the implication of his creation in the universe because the lord alone fashioned the world all of life proceeds from him so that means then he has foundational authority for the whole ethical system of wisdom and then a lab’s last observation is that there are three levels of foolishness in proverbs if you chapter 1 verse number 22 says this how long o naive ones will you love simplicity and scoffers delight themselves in scoffing and fools in knowledge so the levels of foolishness and proverbs are the naive person the simpleton easily enticed and misled believes everything including bad counsel lacks moral prudence and needs discernment but is capable of learning it’s usually the wide-eyed youth who is headed for trouble unless he listens to wise counsel second level is the full a moral and spiritual he’s actually morally and spiritually dull and it’s by choice his problem is not mental his problem is spiritual he has no desire for wisdom or correction and then we have the scoffer the scoffer cynically and defiantly as a free thinker who ridicules the righteous and everything for which he stands like it says in proverbs 19 25 strike a scoffer and the naive may become shrewd but reprove one who has understanding and he will gain knowledge so my question questions this morning considering the passage that we’re going to look at in proverbs is what happens when too many fools get into leadership in our country in any country what happens then to the positive benefits of justice and what negative backlash occurs when governmental leaders skirt justice so that’s what we’re going to look at this morning so i want you to take your bibles look at proverbs 29 and i’m going to begin with verse number two and here’s the first positive benefit when justice is maintained the benefit of happiness and i’m going to read just the half half of the verse and then i’ll look at the other half a little uh as i go along proverbs 29 verse 2 it says when the righteous increase the people rejoice stop right there the hebrew word for increase really means to become many become numerous to multiply so when a society is filling up with righteous people the life of the community will be influenced for good the increase here includes the increase of power and of social effectiveness that means this is very beneficial for a culture when the righteous do increase when the wise person increases so when a society is like this the people what do they do they rejoice they’re glad they have a calmness to their spirit a society in which good right and just things are done and the opposite are not done is a happy society in an atmosphere like this people tend to trust and help one another in other words there’s a sense of community when this mindset and this heart attitude is prevalent there’s a sense of purpose there’s a direction in life there’s a sense of hope for the future when the righteous are in the majority but according to proverbs this is god’s desire for individual people and for nations that’s how he designed it when we do it according to his way in fact look back to proverbs 21 look at verse number three it says there it says to do righteousness and justice is desired by the lord rather than sacrifice so these fixed pair righteousness and justice are the heart of biblical religion summing up the proper attitude toward god and to live to live in accord with them is really to make of one’s own life and offering to god this is what god is pleased with when we live righteously and justly now it says that these two qualities in that verse i just read are desired by the lord and the hebrew word here for desire really means to be chosen that means that god will choose righteousness and justice before external forms of piety through the observation of religious ceremonies see ceremonies matter little to god in comparison with true devotion of an obedient heart before god david the king understood that his sacrifices offered up to god while at the same time being involved in known sin becomes unacceptable to god that’s why he writes psalm 51 where he says there for you do not delight in sacrifice otherwise i would give it and you are not pleased with burnt offerings or he would give that too and then he says this the sacrifice of god are a broken spirit and a contrite heart he will not despise that and when my heart’s like that then he’ll receive my sacrifices the prophets understood the same thing and spoke against god’s people when they slipped into a religious regularity or formality with no heart devotion where it says in hosea i delight in loyalty rather than sacrifice and in the knowledge of god rather than burnt offerings so what happens what happens when when the righteous triumph if you look at proverbs 28 verse number it says when the righteous triumph there is great glory so here we have the reaction of the people to the political rise and fall of the wicked and righteous it affects what they do and how they respond when the righteous triumph and that word triumph in english means to win a victory but here in the hebrew the word literally means to rejoice to exalt to be jubilant again the same thing and the word glory gives a sense of triumph something that we can boast about it is more than a sense of simple celebration but a sense of beauty that comes closer to the creation ideal the way god intended things to be therefore when the righteous are jubilant about what is going on then what happens to the people the people are have confidence they they have and that confidence is contagious amongst the population and they’re excited about things they they want to be part of what is happening they come close to the ideal god desires for people his design in the creation order now saying all that what about when justice breaks down what then well let’s go back to chapter 29 and verse number two and i want you to see the second part of the verse it says when the righteous increase the people rejoice but when the wicked man rules what do people do they groan the people groan that is what happens there’s a matter of fact it pushes out rejoicing and all that people do is groan they mourn it is actually a word also used in scripture to uh translate it as sighing sighing over present evil and also evil that may come they see what’s happening they see what’s gonna the results of of how the leaders of the country are making decisions and they see where it’s heading it’s like when when uh the people were leaving egypt or when they were in egypt joseph had joseph had died and the king that was over joseph had passed away and it says this in exodus now it came about in the course of of those many days that the king of egypt died and the sons of israel sighed because of the bondage they cried out they cried for help because of their bondage and that cry rose up to god in other words they saw what was going to take place after joseph dying and after the pharaoh the king that was reigning while joseph was alive and they forgot about all that and now the slavery just abounded and they saw it was coming and they sighed see that’s what happens when things go bad but there’s another thing that happens and that’s back in proverbs 28 and verse number 12 where the second part of that verse is when the righteous triumph there is great glory but when the wicked rise men hide themselves now this is a very interesting passage of scripture so that means when justice breaks down the creation ideal breaks down and there is no longer jubilance no longer rejoicing no longer happiness a little injustice throws the whole balance of humanity off and government ceases to function for good they begin to function for evil now look what happens when the imbalance takes place men hide themselves it actually the hebrew word actually means to search out or to search for commentator dan garrett suggests that this is not just good men hi good men hide themselves when the wicked are in power it’s not that good people are afraid although that could be true what is really happening here is humanity itself is hard to find in other words we recognize as human beings as god’s creation there’s something wrong going on we may not be able to put our finger on it right away but there’s something wrong going on and so humanity that should be evident in society disappears and things became become wacky and things become unclear in other words you can’t find it where’s the humanity that god gave us in creation what happened to it see so that means humanity itself is hard to find in the sense that institutions are dehumanized man man as he came from the hand of god as the lord formed the man from the dirt of the ground and created man in his image and called him good that creation ideal is no longer evident in society as society sinks to a level of bestiality we look like the animals not like human beings so a degenerate society will cast off any thought of god and any thought of what is actually normal and natural that comes from god or anything that is required of god they will cast off so when justice is out of balance the skill of living diminishes it was bruce walke in his proverb his commentary in proverbs who said the skill of living out life beautifully so that it demonstrates a beauty about it the beauty goes solomon wrote this book so human beings have the knowledge on how to live life in a purposeful and a skillful way which looks good people will recognize that and say i like that when when a child behaves and is honorable to their parents and is respectful to other human beings when they meet them we say i like that i like that individual there’s there’s something and that that shows us humanity that shows what god intended it to be but when that’s not there it’s frightening what will take the vacuum so living according to god’s creation ideal has order and beauty to it like jewelry and that’s what proverbs sometimes brings up jewelry wisdom is like attractive jewelry on the body for all to see like he says in proverbs 4 9 she will place on your head a garden uh a garland of grace she will present you with a crown of beauty it’s just signifying that many times these things are gives thoughts of of just skill and structure and beauty to it so proverbs teach there’s a skill for living and jewelry symbolizes fidelity to parents and authority uh obedient child they will conduct themselves with dignity and because of that there will be a beauty about their life fearing god and acting upon parental instruction has an eye-catching beauty about it obedience is beautiful and makes a person delightfully outstanding many times above others this is lost when leaders play foolish this is lost when we have fools in authority when they play the full there is no beauty there is no rejoicing there is only mourning and sighing and dysfunction that’s what we see only when the wicked die and diminish in number will righteousness be seen as it says in proverbs 28 28 when the wicked rise man hides himself but when they perish the righteous increase in other words when righteousness comes back in things get back to normal society gets back to normal people’s lives get back to normal as god intended it to be so that’s the first positive and negative of when justice is either followed or not followed that it benefit is rejoicing it is happiness the second positive benefit when justice is maintained is the benefit of stability notice in verse number 4 of proverbs 29 it says the king gives stability to the land by justice so that is the king is the government and when justice is upheld there’s a stability in the land so that here the administration of justice is in the hands of the governing authorities in this case the king who is who really who had sovereign rule over the whole kingdom and when the king does what is right that is does what is right before the creator stability is granted by god just like it says in proverbs 29 14 if the king judges the poor with truth his throne will be established forever so the eternal establishment of the throne is the stability that god gives to a government when they do the right thing but what about when justice breaks down again 20 uh verse 4 of proverbs 29 the king gives stability to the land by justice but a man who takes bribes overthrows it so the temptation to those in power is to abuse power for their own enrichment usually and this can be done by more evident maybe than bribes now today we don’t usually call it bribes in government we call it earmarks we call it pork barrels in budgets and bills making favors with other officials throughout the state saying if you just do if you do this for me i’ll do this for you so passing laws favorable to one section of the community in return for cash or making judgment in court in favor of those who pay for them when this happens justice is toppled it’s ruined and destroyed it really destroys the whole process so bribes cause government officials to disregard god’s standard as it says in first samuel it says his samuel sons however did not walk in the ways in his ways but turned aside after dishonest gain took bribes and perverted justice and their bribes also cause government officials to turn aside the poor in amia amos chapter 5 verse 12 it says for i know your transgressions are many and your sins are great you who distress the righteous and accept bribes and turn aside poor the poor in the gates and then bribes also within government shows how absent god is in that particular system and that particular society where ezekiel the prophet said this in prophet in ezekiel 22 verse 12 in you they have taken bribes to shed blood you have taken interest and profits and you have injured your neighbor for gain by oppression and you have forgotten me declares the lord you forgot that you’re responsible to the creator and then look over to proverbs 17 and verse number 8 concerning this topic of a bribe it says in proverbs 17 verse 8 a bribe is a charm in the sight of its owner wherever he turns he prospers now notice the term used in the new american standard bible picked to translate the hebrew word the word charm it simply means a stone it is used here as a stone of favor equal to a stone that brings favor or a lucky stone a magic stone the hebrew ex expression does not occur uh in this sense elsewhere in the old testament but we do know that the israelites used amulets and charms and sometimes made precious stones as these charms that they used even ezekiel in the king james bible says and say thus says the lord god woe to the woman who sows magic charms on the sleeves so from this the thought is that a bribe is a source of good luck that in the estimation of the briber whenever he depends on the charm it brings success it is clearly not just mon the monetary value of it that is in view but the idea that a bribe works like a charm or like magic a bribe can really cut out all the red tape that you have to deal with and get quick results no paperwork to fill out no debate to have on the issues you know back door deals being done that you find out about later see bribery when it takes place within a government overthrows justice it looks like it gives success on every side but in the end it will cause a nation remember righteousness exalts a nation that kind of thing really brings a nation down and then in proverbs 21 verse 14 it says a gift in secret subdues anger and a bribe in the bosom strong wrath that means that the wickedness of a bribe lies both in the means and its end here in this passage i just read it has to be given and received in secret literally out of the bosom a picture of the briber taking money from under his skirt and the bribe slipping it into the pocket inside the coat of the other person it’s done in secret so wherever whatever it means of bribery it blinds the people to truth and encourages them to twist the words of the righteous and we know from the old testament law that bribery in all forms was forbidden and the path uh a path really the wives really should never ever take i remember getting a call at two o’clock in the morning when that one many years ago from a missionary and they because because of the time difference it was two o’clock in the morning and this is when we had land lines you know we’re actually you had to pick up the phone and there was a wire that connected to the wall wall that’s for the younger people you know and uh it i was talking to him at two o’clock morning that conversation went on for two hours and the subject was bribery he says i can’t get anything done everywhere i go people want their palm greased what do i do i says well you do a lot of praying and you don’t give in to them so he he called me back later and he says you know i really put that stuff into practice and i found out that they didn’t want to deal with me and they gave me what i wanted anyway without giving them a bribe so we have to do what’s right because deuteronomy tells us in chapter 16 you shall not distort justice you shall not be partial you shall not take a bribe for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and perverts the words of the righteous now getting back to proverbs 29 and verse number 4 where it says the king gives stability to the land by justice but a man who takes bribes overthrows it that wherever justice is distorted stability is no longer a benefit in fact in verse number 20 uh verse number eight of chapter 29 it’s it says scorners set a city aflame but a wise man turn away anger that means a scorner who sets a city aflame that means when corrupt leaders scorners mock at justice this action destabilizes the community and the country and stirs up the city that inflames the people to break into factions and of course remember the level of foolishness a scoffer is the worst level a scoffer just does what they want so when government officials do not uphold justice and refuse to act with justice it throws off the whole balance of justice and if imbalance is not checked it will inevitably lead to the next thing and that’s violence proverbs 21 verse 7 the violence of the wicked will drag them away because they refuse to act with justice so that’s what’s happening you have all this breakdown in the government all the way down and what do you have on the ground level you have chaos you have violence you have destruction you have lawlessness you have from ever at every angle that’s not good for a country that doesn’t that doesn’t give signs that a country is doing well when those things take place in fact the word violence coupled with the word wicked that one one is guilty of sin is really referring to a hardened criminal as it says in proverbs 24 1 and 2 do not be envious of an evil man nor desire to be with them for their minds devise violence and their lips talk of trouble these are the scoffers of proverbs the root reason for their conduct of violence goes back to their past they refused to learn something while they were in the molding process as a youth they refuse to act justly and proper and fitting and they end up becoming what belligerent self-centered and violent people who must be dragged off from their crimes they don’t even want to give them up you must drag them away from those crimes so sometimes these very people get into public office and end up being a menace to society so how has our culture today been distorted how has it become unrecognizable gladness is turned into mourning the humanity as uh of god as he intended is unrecognizable well confused first of all the definition of marriage away from its original design and the whole institution is discredited the family is under attack divorce one one-parent families child abuse gender juvenile crime child trafficking and the list goes on and on but remember god clearly defines marriage as a monogamous union between one man and one woman so defending and promoting marriage according to god’s design is actually doing justice it’s actually showing the world this is what god intended this is the way it’s supposed to look this is real humanity what about abortion one million babies a year are killed in the united states of america and now we have late term abortion how heinous is that and yet god created all human beings in his image the word of god clearly indicates that he forms children in their mother’s womb womb and all human beings are totally human right from fertilization so standing up for the helpless is doing justice and then brainwash the culture with gender fluidity and the children will be will actually lose their identity deceive the children lie to them and they will be disillusioned and lose all hope and yet god clearly made people as distinct men and women in his image so that these two genders as gifts of god’s grace are given to us and must be kept and honored in every person and to think otherwise is evil wrong and disingenuous and doing it the right way is justice and it does look like humanity when that takes place and then saturate everything with the wicked and demonic critical race theory that’s been all over the news so that division amongst the population will grow deeper and more violent now i just want to say something about it because you may not know what it is critical race theory is actually an american invention in the 1970s the study began as why the civil rights era victory stalled which led in to the 1980s where the students at harvard law school protesting at the lack of racial diversity in the curriculum student body and faculty and out from these circumstances rose what is called today the critical race theory and the bottom line of and the bottom premise of this theory is that the most important thing about you is your race so then everything is decided by race the color of your skin not on your character not on your environment not on your values not on your behaviors not on your achievements that means nothing to them no everything is examined by one’s race and if you are part of the minoritized race group you are a victim of the system that is rigged against you a system that does not want you to succeed and that’s where we get the term being thrown around today as systemic racism on the other hand if you are race privileged you are an exploiter whether you intend to be or not so the critical race mindset assumes that racism is present everywhere always and if a situation arises they will find it if no one else can so the critical race theory is a unique un-american because it rejects the core tenements really of the american classically liberal judeo-christian value system that means that there is order like the declaration and independence tells us that all men are created equal and are endowed by the creator with unenviable rights the right for life liberty and the pursuit of happiness they deny that that’s why they become haters of america also the critical race theory blames the imperial european powers on how the constitution framers designed the constitution that the system that they design is rigged against people also the critical race theory avoids recognizing america has spent a lot of time and a lot of money to break free of the racist past instead they want to cancel history rewrite history they want to cancel culture and reinvent things in fact they don’t even agree they they actually don’t agree at all with martin luther king’s civil rights movement where his dream that people would be judged by the content of their character and not by the color of their skin they think he was naive and wrong incredible race theory they they concluded that this 40-year american experiment is a failure and needs to be scrapped so this particular mindset really what it does is elevates storytelling over evidence and reason it really rejects the concept of truth and merit and facts it poisons and produces hatred and disunity and violence within a culture and it definitely fails to see racism as a matter of the sinful heart and the answer is the gospel of jesus christ because the gospel of jesus christ will change your heart towards people and you will start loving all people as god loves us and it does this it violates the two great commandments to love the lord thy god with all my heart all thy mind all my soul and all thy strength and the second to love your neighbor as yourself those are god’s commandments see when those take place life looks like it ought to when they don’t take place it’s unrecognizable that’s what i’m saying unrecognized humanity and when i look out sometimes and i hear the news i don’t recognize any of that stuff because it’s all distorted that’s not the way it it’s intended to be by god so you know that what we really need to do is we need to refuse to accept this kind of teaching and we we should not be bullied into being racist when we’re not or a victim when you’re not this kind of thinking has no place whatsoever in the church when we become christians we are brothers and sisters in christ because we’re connected to our lord jesus christ by his death in our behalf his resurrection his shed blood to wash away our sins right and he gives us the word of god and the hope of eternal life and a world that righteousness dwells in the new heaven and the earth we’re not going to find it here but we will we are promised it of that righteousness someday in fact in scripture it says in second corinthians 5 16 when someone gets saved it says therefore from now on we recognize no one according to the flesh that means people are not looked at as jew and gentile than bond and free and rich and poor and pagan and barbarian nor this the color of their skin whether it’s red or yellow black brown or white the unsaved are looked at by us as lost in darkness and in bondage and they need the gospel and the saved are looked at as being in the same family of god and hence brothers and sisters in christ so see our culture has become in some ways unrecognizable because of the distortion of the truth because of the order that god’s given us in creation has been turned over and justice is not being held anymore so lie to the people and say it enough times that they’ll accept it as the norm and the more and more people will give heartily approval to it or they’ll just simply ignore it but remember the gospel makes clear that god has made all people equally in his image so racism is wrong and is an issue of the heart in fact if you look at proverbs 29 verse it says if a ruler pays attention to falsehood all his ministers become wicked and then you add to all that a hybrid socialism and the socialistic mindset has been taught really in our schools and institutions of higher learning for the past 25 to 30 years if this mindset becomes dominant we will no longer have an america as founded by the founding fathers and as seen in the declaration of independence the constitution of the united states the goal of democratic socialism is to have full control over your life in other words the state is the march of god for the world and the end result as according to hegel is that he saw the state or government as a replacement of god on earth and any political leader ascribing to that concept they will be against righteousness and ultimately against christianity it was funny i was reading some definitions of uh different things like you know socialism communism fascism and somebody kind of summed it up in a kind of a tongue-in-cheek manner but the truth is there and this is what how they define socialism you have two cows the government takes one and gives you gives the other to your neighbor communism you have two cows the government takes both and give you some milk fascism you have two cows the government takes both and sells you the milk nazism you have two cows the government takes both and shoot you bureaucracy you have two cows the government takes both shoots one melts the other and throws away the milk waste capitalism you have two cows you sell one buy a bull start a business so that you don’t become dependent upon the government i thought that was unique and of course if we go further than that and you want to defund the police then you’re going to have anarchy and violence you’re going to have lawlessness and a violent person will not come easily as the scriptures tell us they must be dragged from their violence because they think what they’re doing is the right thing now if all these things take place who will they hurt the most they will not hurt the elite they will not hurt the rich but the rights of the poor people in society who have no power or or no voice that leads me to the last positive benefit where justice is maintained and that’s this the benefit of social concern notice what it says in verse number seven it says the righteous is concerned for the rights of the poor let me stop there that means that real justice is to see the poor are not falsely condemned or misused or inhumanly treated because of their weaknesses where there is justice the poor have no where there’s justice the poor actually the weak the feeble are being taken care of with and there is a kind of a genuine solution looked at but what about when justice breaks down look at the rest of verse number seven it says the righteous is concerned for the rights of the poor the wicked does not understand such concerns so what happens is that when justice diminishes concern for the vulnerable individuals in society and those groups are not taken care of and the problems are not solved and what you have what you have rampant going on even in our country right now rampant homelessness why because they don’t even know how to fix it because that’s not their concern so homelessness is out of control with no desire to fix the problems because there is no real concern on the side of governing authorities so you see that the wisdom of proverbs really lays out what happens when justice is pushed aside and all these things go on and we see it right before our eyes we need to pray for our country and we need to be praying we’re part of the solution as a church and believe me the gospel of jesus christ is the answer and the true church is the answer because it is the gospel of jesus christ that will maintain happiness and gladness in the heart of people it’s the gospel that will maintain stability and give joy and the promise of eternal life it is the gospel who will love god and love people and take care of the needs the gospel that will do that so the the hope of the world is the church and the person of jesus christ so this morning i just wanted to lay those things before you uh just to show you that we really need to pray for our country and we need to bring our country and its leaders before the lord every day and every wednesday when we pray and every time we can and be part of how can we be part of the solution part of that solution is you living the way god intended and then people see that and say that’s the way it ought to be amen let’s pray let’s pray father we thank you we thank you this morning for the wisdom that comes from the word of god we thank you lord that the wisdom exposes when things are out of balance it shows us what’s not right it also shows us your intention to have order in the universe to present humanity in a way where it is recognizable yes those are the things are right and those things will bring not only beauty to those who see but it will be bring honor to your great name so i just ask you lord that by your divine design that your church would be the light in a dark world to bring the gospel to the people that would change their whole mindset and worldview and reverse the way they were thinking and the destruction of their thoughts to that of thoughts of being which will produce joy and rejoicing which will produce stability and will produce concern for the glory of god and and the problems and issues of people and i just ask this in the name of our precious lord and savior jesus christ amen

June 13, 2021
Get Serious About Sexual Sin (Part 2): Rejoice in Your Spouse
In this sermon, David Capoccia completes his examination of Solomon’s wise teaching regarding sex and sexual sin in Proverbs 5. David Capoccia reviews the main points from the first message and then explains the second and third reasons God gives so that a person might keep his way far from sexual temptation: God’s pleasurable provision and God’s all-assessing eye. David Capoccia finishes the message by giving ten points of suggested life application:
1. Apply this counsel in your thoughts
2. Apply this counsel in your dating relationships
3. Apply this counsel in your close friendships
4. Apply this counsel in your counseling
5. Apply this counsel in your traveling
6. Apply this counsel in your activities
7. Tolerate no-excuse for non-application
8. Be careful to acknowledge differences in application
9. Seek help in your application of God’s counsel
10. Help others in their application of God’s counsel
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good morning I’m excited to share more of God’s great wisdom with you this morning but first let’s pray Lord Jesus you really are so lovely as we’ve sung in the last three songs just reminding ourselves and telling you about just how lovely you are indeed you are so lovely you’re so righteous you’re so good you’re so so loving to us thank you for betrothing us to yourself thank you for enabling us to be a cleansed bride thank you that you are preparing a place for us and when the time is right you will come get us and bring us to yourself thank you thank you for loving us in such an incredible way thank you also for the word that you’ve given us Lord Jesus we know that all wisdom is bound up and revealed in you and even the wisdom of this passage is really your wisdom so we thank you for this wisdom and I pray that you would help me to be able to declare it help you will explain it clearly and I pray holy spirit that you would work among your people now that you would sanctify that you would encourage that you would fill with Joy by Your Word in Jesus name I pray amen all right please open your Bibles back up to Proverbs Chapter 5 Proverbs 5 this is Page 644 in the Pew bibles if you’re using those this is the second part of the sermon that I began to preach last week we are going to reread our passage we’ll then briefly review what we discovered last week from this passage and then we’ll explore the rest of the passage and the points that we did not yet get to so Proverbs 5: 1-23 page 644 please follow along with me as we read my son give attention to my wisdom incline your ear to my understanding that you may observe discretion and your lips May Reserve knowledge for the Lips of an ad adulterous drip honey and smoother than oil is their speech but in the end she is bitter as wormwood sharp as a two-edged sword her feet go down to death her steps take hold of sheal she does not Ponder the path of Life her ways are unstable she does not know it now then my sons listen to me and do not depart from the words of my mouth keep your way far from her and do not go near the door of her house or you will give your Vigor to others and your years to the cruel one and strangers will be filled with your strength and your hard earned Goods will go to the house of an alien and you Gran at your final end when your flesh and your body are consumed and you say how I have hated instruction and my heart spurned reproof I have not listened to the voice of my teachers nor inclined my ear to my instruction I was almost in utter ruin in the midst of the assembly and congregation drink water from your own sistern and fresh water from your own well should your Springs be dispersed abroad streams of water in the streets let them be yours alone and not for strangers with you let your fountain be blessed and rejoice in the wife of your youth as a loving Hind and a graceful dough let her breasts satisfy you at all times be exhilarated always with her love for why should you my son be exhilarated with an adulteress and embrace the bosom of a foreigner for the ways of a man are before the eyes of the Lord and he watches all his paths his own iniquities will capture the wicked and he will be held with the cords of his sin he will die for lack of instruction and in the greatness of his father fly you will go astray this is a great word from the Lord already we’ve seen why we need to pay close attention to this teaching regarding sex and sexual sin we’ve seen that sexuality is a subject relevant to each one of us we need to know how to Steward the sexual nature is given to us by God we live in a world hopelessly enslaved to its sexual desires and we as Christ’s people are called to live sexually set apart even in this perverse World we’ve also seen that the speaker has the perfect credentials to teach us the author of our text is Solomon and he understands the subjects of sex and sexual sin perfectly well by god-given wisdom we can also trust Solomon’s care for us in this teaching because he speaks as a father does to his own Sons Solomon and by extension God whose Spirit enables Solomon to speak truly knows what he’s talking about and he’s teaching us for our own blessing and happiness we’ve also seen that the consequences of ignoring this teaching are exceedingly severe we are sure to fall into painful sin that will capture and destroy us we can’t afford to remain ignorant or to treat these subjects casually furthermore we’ve seen God’s main counsel regarding sexual sin in verse 8 keep your way far from her her being the adulterous who really represents any Temptation towards sexual sin keep your way far do not even go near the door of her house don’t mess with sexual sin Don’t Go Near it don’t chance it widen in your way however much you need to so that you and sexual Temptation remain far apart as we’ve seen this is a council that stresses a proactive approach to sexual Temptation don’t just wait for sexual temptation to show up and then try to flee you should already be analyzing and anticipating how the adulteress tries to reach you and then preemptively cut off her points of access this will cost you but it is wise and it is worth it now certainly included in this council is an encouragement to if you’re already thinking about or moving towards sexual sin to immediately divert and flee and when sexual Temptation presents itself to you in a way that you did not foresee or anticipate still resist and remove yourself immediately those are other implications of this teaching but the most crucial part of this strategy is the pre-planning make the adjustments in your thinking in your activities and in your relationships so that you and sexual Temptation meet as little as possible why do this why take such a serious stance against sexual Temptation our text here in Proverbs 5 gives us three reasons to motivate us I introduced these last week let me give you those three reasons again why I take such a serious stance reason one sexual sins deceptive destructiveness reason two God’s pleasurable provision reason three God’s all assessing eye we looked at the first reason together last week you must keep your way far from sexual sin because it is too deceptive and too destructive to Merit anything less than the most guarded stance we saw this from verses 3 to 14 the adulteress is extremely cunning and alluring not only does she look attractive but she’s able to powerfully persuade with her words her goal is to get you to forget wisdom and forget the future and she is very good at doing that you cannot afford to go near someone so skilled at enticing and capturing furthermore she’s nothing like she seems she seems Pleasant and satisfying fing but she really only brings bitterness and injury her way is actually the way toward death she doesn’t realize it but that’s where she is going and she wants to take you with her being captured by the adulteress May literally result in your own death but aside from dying the damage the adulteress inflicts to her lovers is manifold loss of time and energy loss of wealth loss of Health extreme horror and regret in the future loss of restraint towards sin and loss of reputation and position because sexual sin is so dangerous and so damaging you and I must keep our ways as far from her as possible that is simple wisdom that is the way to preserve your happiness and to gain blessing but God’s way of wisdom is not merely avoiding evil and what has the capacity to harm he also counsels us to embrace the good to hold fast to the good and to be righteously satisfied with what God provides as the great Puritan commentator Matthew Henry points out the same God who said to Adam and Eve touch not the forbidden fruit also commanded freely enjoy the fruit that I have provided Satan’s lie has always been God is holding you back from something good I want you to have it but the opposite is true God only desires to hold you back from what is evil what is injuring and what is unhelpful he abundantly provides and commends what is good his heart is by nature generous all his commands are given to us for our good that’s why David says in the Psalms I love your law it’s all God’s kind kind heart in the law God is no Miser does not hold back anything that is truly good from us instead he offers it to us freely and commands us to receive it and enjoy it totally and this is exactly where Solomon goes next in our passage so proceeding through those three points I mentioned we’re now going to look at the second reason to heed God’s instruction regarding the adulteress second reason is God’s pleasurable provision keep your way far from sexual sin that you might enjoy God’s pleasurable provision let’s read again verses 15 to 20 where we see this developed drink water from your own sistern and fresh water from your own well should your Springs be dispersed abroad streams of water in the streets let them be yours alone and not for strangers with you let your fountain be blessed and rejoice in the wife of your youth as a loving Hind and a graceful dough let her her breasts satisfy you at all times be exhilarated always with her love for why should you my son be exhilarated with an adulteress and embrace the bosom of a foreigner notice this section features a number of metaphors related to water and drinking verses 15- 18 they discuss drinking water and various sources of water but even in verses 19 to 20 we still see language related to drinking and vers vers 19 the Hebrew word for satisfy literally means to slake The Thirst and verses 19 to 20 the ver the word for exhilarated can be translated to go astray or to be intoxicated as with the drink however to interpret all these drinking metaphors we need to make sure we fully understand all the terms that the author is using in verses 15 to 18 Solomon mentions four different sources of drinking water these are actually the four main sources of drinking water in the ancient world let’s make sure we understand each one of them first there’s the sistern a sistern is a pit dug in the ground to collect rainwater remember there’s not much water in Palestine it’s very reliant on rain so sisters are very important nearly every house had its own sistern then there’s the well a well is a pit that connects connects to underground sour ources of water so it’s not for collecting rain water it’s for getting water that’s already in the ground Wes were less common than sisters but extremely valuable well water since it came from deep underground was usually cool clean and refreshing next there’s the spring the spring is a site where an underground source of water connects with the surface and it flows across the ground as a river or stream Springs were viable since they made drinkable water accessible right at the surface you didn’t have to draw it up with a bucket so that saved you a lot of Labor finally there’s the fountain a fountain is a man-made construction for a fountain surface water usually from a spring flows into a town or city via some kind of covered Channel and then it pours sometimes via a spout into a pool or Basin this spout and Basin is the fountain now unlike today Fountains at that time were gravity fed they relied on gravity to actually transport the water which means you cannot usually shut them off the water’s going to keep on flowing and all that extra water Beni is going to need to go somewhere therefore some fountains most fountains were designed to overflow across the streets into drains through which the water could then be channeled outside the city so you have these fountains in the city or a fountain in the city it overflows some of the water goes across the street and is drained outside the city so we have these four sources of drinking water mentioned in our passage the problem with these terms as translated is that the Hebrew words for sistern Well Spring and Fountain are somewhat interchangeable the Hebrew words can all be describing any one of those four things or at least three of them they’re very flexible therefore we should not look too much into the distinction between the words sistern well or Fountain as they’re used in verses 15 to 18 they’re all basically describing the same thing do notice though that verses 16 to 17 refer to Springs in the plural this shift from singular to plural is significant we’ll come back to this a little bit later but if God counsels you to drink water from your own system your own well or your own Fountain what is he really saying well Verse 18 makes it clear your well is your wife your sister is your spouse rejoice in the wife of your youth seek refreshment from your spouse not in harlots or adultery seek refreshment in God’s provision every house has its own sistern your spouse is your sistern your well your spring your fountain God has given you a special source of cool and pure thirst quenching therefore for enjoy your spouse Rejoice over your spouse seek satisfaction in your spouse you don’t need to go elsewhere God has already provided but someone may say my well is not like other Wells my spouse doesn’t have what others have well that’s actually true even in the ancient world the water of various Springs and Wells was unique no two Wells or Springs tasted the same but that’s okay you don’t need to drink from every well if you did you wouldn’t get to appreciate the well you’ve got your spouse is your well your spring no one else gets to enjoy your spouse’s unique blessings but you your spouse is special in a multitude of ways don’t try to compare him or her to others enjoy everything that is unique about your spouse go to your spouse for a refreshment your spouse after all is the wife or husband of your youth you may have chosen your spouse yourself you probably did if you’re listening right now or if you’re in Israel your spouse may have been chosen for you by your parents but ultimately it doesn’t matter who brought you together from a human perspective as Jesus says As He makes clear as he interprets for us correctly in the New Testament God is the one one who really brought you two together in a sense you were destined and designed for one another does God know how to provide good gifts your spouse is your good gift receive your husband or wife then as one receives a gift from God and rejoice in him or her as an act of worshipful thanks to God and as you rejoice in your spouse you actually bless your spouse just as Verse 18 says let your fountain be blessed and rejoice in the wife of your youth you see your rejoicing and your spouse’s blessedness they go together husbands it is to your advantage to rejoice in your wife because the more you rejoice in her the more you will bless her that is the more you will make her happy and the happier she is the happier you will be because after all you are one flesh just as Genesis or just as Genesis says and wives the same is true for you regarding your husbands the more you rejoice in him the more you bless him and the more you will be blessed in return the Apostle Paul says the same thing in the New Testament he who loves his own wife loves himself bless your spouse then by rejoicing in in him or her and allow yourself to be blessed by your spouse as he or she rejoices in you marriage is all about this Mutual blessing and rejoicing in the one flesh relationship and you have no need to be timid about this God wants your enjoyment to be total and continuous look again at verse 19 as a loving Hind and a graceful dough let her breast satisfy you at all times be exhilarated always with her love the words Hind and do here both describe a beautiful and graceful female deer God says you should appreciate your spouse as a beautiful and magnificent creation of God God says let her breast satisfy you at all times that is continually perpetually all the time let the unique goodness of your spouse’s body be the constant source of your sexual refreshment don’t search for someone else’s breast and body don’t search for someone else to sexually romantically or affectionately quench your thirst you don’t need to God has already uniquely and perfectly provided for you but we’re not talking here about merely physical gratification because notice the end of verse 19 God says to be always exhilarated intoxicated LED astray by drunk with not simply her body but her what her love because isn’t that the most attractive thing in a spouse while God created your spouse’s body in a beautiful and wonderful way it is your spouse’s love that really makes him or her attractive it is your spouse’s heart it is your spouse’s righteousness it is your spouse’s Covenant devotion and sincere affection to you it is your spouse’s love that gives his or her body it’s glow it is the inside that makes the outside truly beautiful or handsome your all wise God counsels you be intoxicated with your spouse be beside yourself with your spouse’s body your spouse’s love and your spouse’s soul your spouse is your own deep and unique source of heart refreshment enjoy then your spouse’s refreshment to the full do you see why it is so senseless then to go near the adulteress not only do you have no need of outside refreshment but being entrapped by sexual sin means that you will no longer be able to enjoy this perfect and righteous vision from God you will miss out do you not see the wisdom in God’s command keep your way far from sexual sin verse 20 makes this point explicit for why should you my son be exhilarated with an adulteress and embrace the bosom of a foreigner this Behavior makes no sense considering God’s pleasurable provision now what about the other part those plural spring as I mentioned earlier verses 16 to 17 are a bit perplexing at first but these verses are not about polygamy or sharing sexual partners with strangers rather these verses are about children they are about the natural product of marriage switching the metaphor a bit Solomon pictures children as another kind of refreshment source for the married couple children are like fountains whose Waters come from their parents really your children are multiplication of the blessing and refreshment from your spouse obviously not the same kind of refreshment but an extra kind that is directly related to your spouse children belong to you and your wife you have a special bond with them that you don’t have with other people children literally reflect you and your wife you see her and them and and she sees you in them children are your little friends your little students your little workers when properly trained children canot only help their parents in their work and social obligations but they can also go out into society representing their parents well and bringing benefit to the community as a whole children get married and have their own children much to the Delight of the grandparents children carry on the family name and traditions children receive the family inheritances children provide for their parents in old age and death children can learn from their parents about God and about his wisdom and they can tell others about it in ancient Israel every couple sought to have many children children were considered a blessing and a source of joy and refreshment to be married and have no children was considered a great tragedy and many took it as a sign of God’s curse and though our society is a little different now children are still a blessing when viewed and trained rightly God’s design for marriage is not only that you enjoy the provision of your spouse but also the provision of your children together God says the husband and wife enjoy your children how senseless then would it be to have children that you could not enjoy to install The Fountains of your water in the streets of the city to have children with harlots and adulteresses you and your spouse won’t get to enjoy these children you might not even get to know these children at all like the city fountain water overflowing and running across their dirty streets children of sexual sin will be seen by many especially your spouse as dirty such children are often shamed children lost children hurt children children who don’t even know both of their parents and who get to spend little time with them and that day many illegitimate children literally became Children of the street begging scrounging stealing just trying to survive and knowing little to nothing about Yahweh according to Deuteronomy 23:2 illegitimate children by law could not enjoy the same religious or social privileges as other people in Israel God asks is that how you want your seed to end up unknown unloved untrained and un enjoyed brought up by harlots or Worse killed in the womb or shortly afterwards because they were an embarrassing inconvenience you know that exposure was common in the ancient world to get rid of unwanted children what a tragic waste such fountains could have been for the enjoyment of you and your you and your spouse you could have blessed your spouse with your seed but instead you chose to waste it with tra with strangers don’t share your children with strangers and harlots don’t scatter your seed abroad let them be yours alone yours and your spouses alone that you may be blessed you see again God’s wisdom and commanding you to stay as far away as possible from sexual sin don’t risk going near or you might miss out so much on God’s pleasurable provision now you might ask but wait I’m not married yet or I was married and my spouse left me or I am married but I don’t get along very well with my spouse or I just plan intend to stay single how then is this teaching applicable to me well a number of ways to those not yet married I would say you can prepare now to wait for and later enjoy God’s pleasurable provision stay self-controlled now so that when God brings you together with your spouse you can enjoy your spouse spouse to the full Without Regrets furthermore be blessing your spouse now with your chaste thoughts and behavior even though you may not even know who your spouse is yet you can bless that you can bless that unknown spouse now and if you do so it will later it will later result in her happiness and yours when God brings you together so those struggling in marriage I would say this right now you may not be able to enjoy God’s pleasurable provision as it was originally meant but let this be a motivation for you to deal with what needs to be dealt with in your relationship confront and confess sin turn from unprofitable habits renew your sincere and affectionate pursuit of your spouse seek help from other mature Believers healing may not happen quickly but as you and your spouse submit yourselves to God’s way once again you can recover the love and refreshment that God meant for your marriage but above all and this applies to everyone in every kind of situation single married estranged whatever we must remember that God’s pledgeable provision goes Way Beyond a human spouse God’s pledgeable provision is ultimately God himself God is your provision Christ actually is your heavenly spouse he is your true source of refreshment the true and greater source as satisfying as any human spouse can be Jesus is even more so he said as much using the same language as we see here John 4: 13- 14 Jesus is speaking to the woman at the well Jesus answered and said to her everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life whether married or unmarried happily wed or painfully estranged if you walk in sexual Holiness you will get to enjoy Jesus the Wellspring of the Soul he is the one for whom you were really designed 1 Corinthians 613b says yet the body is not for immorality but for the Lord and the Lord is for the body did you get that your body and soul need Christ more than they need sex or marital love really in life a human spouse is not necessary sex is not necessary an Earthly spouse is a kind provision and a helpful provision from God but it is not a needed one what you really need is God himself you need Christ actually as long as you idolize sex love love or marriage as long as you believe that one of those or all of those are things that are necessary for your contentment you will never be satisfied even when you fall in love get married or have sex you will not be satisfied you will not be able to enjoy God’s good provision if you don’t acknowledge God himself as the ultimately good provision if you’re not satisfied with God you cannot truly enjoy his gifts my brothers and sisters let us once and for all get rid of the false notion that sex and love are necessary for life or that sex and love are the greatest joys in life the world believes these things do they not but they’re not true and if you believe these things you will be disappointed you will be in snared and you will never be satisfied but again the counter truth Christ is necessary for Life walking with God’s son is the greatest joy in life and his Joy is available to all and it never Fades but you cannot have the adulterous in Christ too you cannot serve God and sexual sin if you want Christ’s saving and refreshing draft you must repent of all sexual sin and idolatry to summarize this point even though Solomon here speaks specifically about God’s good provision of a spouse there is a principle here that goes far beyond when you are sexually self-controlled when you keep your way far from the adulteress you get to enjoy all of God’s good provision in whatever form it may be therefore for the sake of experiencing God’s pledgeable provision the wise man will suffer no sexual stumbling blocks to remain in his path you will not chance it so we see the second motivating reason God’s pledgeable provision the last point the third of our three reasons is short and it’s based in only one verse here’s the third reason to keep yourself far from the adulterous God’s all assessing eye keep your way far from sexual sin because of God’s all assessing eye look at verse 21 for the ways of a man are before the eyes of the Lord and he watches all his paths now some might connect verse 21 with the next two verses 22 and 23 but I see 22 and 23 as I’ve already argued as a bookend paralleling the first two verses of this chapter I don’t believe they’re directly connected to this verse I believe the principle in verse 21 stands is all by itself so what is the principle well Solomon simply states that God sees everything wherever you go God’s eyes are watching you the word for watches here is the same word that was used earlier in verse six that time it’s translated Ponder the adulterous does not Ponder the path of life but God Ponders every step you take he’s looking at it he’s thinking about it and he he’s assessing it and it doesn’t say that he simply sees Sinners or those going after sexual sin he sees everything he sees the righteous and the wicked he sees those who take the way of the adulterous and he sees those who are careful to keep their way far from the adulteress what is the implication of this well this means that good or bad nothing is secret before God your sin is not secret your randu with the adultery is not secret your careless straying into the path of sexual sin is not secret your lustful fantasy is not secret your idolatrous and discontented heart is not secret God sees it all and he’s marking it down for what purpose to motivate his judgment and to testify against you God is opposed to evildoers of every kind as Solomon also says in the Book of Proverbs Proverbs 3:33 the curse of the Lord is on the house of the wicked but He blesses the dwelling of the righteous God will curse and destroy those who practice evil but he has a particular Vengeance against those who do not turn away from sexual sin 1 Thessalonians 4:6 says that the Lord will bring Vengeance on those who participate in and Lead others towards sexual sin and Hebrews 13:4 says Mary is to be held in honor among all and the marriage bet is to be undefiled for fornicators and adulterers God will judge in other words when God’s eye sees your secret sexual sin know for sure that you are under God’s curse God may be patient with you he may hold back much of his wrath and give you time to repent but you cannot count on it and until you repent you will suffer the intrinsic consequences of your sin engaging with the sin at all brings damage to your life you will partly reap God’s judgment on sexual sin in this life but you will fully reap it in the next God made sex and God made marriage his anger is stored up for those who abuse his good gifts but it’s not just secret sin that God sees he also sees secret obedience was this not the teaching of Jesus in The Sermon on the Mount your father who sees what is done in secret will reward you the Lord sees when you turn your eyes away from a nude picture the Lord sees when you exercise sexual self-control the Lord sees when you purposefully devote all your affection and desire toward your spouse and the Lord sees when you thankfully Delight in his provision the Lord also sees when you keep your way far from the adulterous others probably don’t see it others may even think your behavior is weird but God sees it he sees it with his omniscient eye and he is marking it down why well similar to before it is to motivate his reward and to testify of Christ’s righteousness in you God’s kindness is always toward the faith filled obedient they will be blessed by by the Lord in this life and they will receive their full reward in the Life to Come therefore because of God’s allseeing all assessing eye you have set before you blessing and cursing life and death reward and judgment will you be faithful in the seemingly secret things seeing as they are all in the plain view of God or will you ignore God’s omniscience and store for yourself more and more damning testimony God will one day demand of you an explanation for your every thought your every word and your every action he will demand to know why you did not follow his Good Counsel what would you say to him in that day since God sees the secret things to judge or reward do you then see this last reason for the wisdom of God’s command to stay far away from the adulteress to keep your way far from sexual sin let God see your faith let God see your obedience let God see that you believe his counsel he will take note and you will be blessed don’t try to hide your Disobedience or your contempt for his Good Counsel because he will still see and take note and you will be cursed so we see the third reason God’s all essing eye let’s now review the argument presented by Solomon and by the spirit of God God commands and counsels you for your own sake to keep your way far from every sexual Temptation God also supplies three reasons to motivate you the deceptive destructiveness of sexual sin the pleasurable provision of God and the all assessing eye of God the question now is will you heed his counsel are you willing to follow this wise principle in your life if you do you will be blessed but if you don’t remember verses 22 and 23 his own iniquities will capture the wicked and he will be held held fast with the cords of his sin he will die for lack of instruction and in the greatness of his folly he will go astray the consequences of your not listening remember are severe you’ll be caught up in sin you will suffer harm and you will ultimately die God does not want that for you and neither do I so please listen to God’s good and loving counsel some final thoughts as we close our discussion of this passage this teaching we’ve discussed has many implications I would like to just briefly suggest 10 points of application for your lives first apply this counsel in your thoughts there are certain things that are not profitable for you to think about because they will lead you towards sin these first thoughts may not be sinful in themselves but they are not profitable just as you would avoid the street of the adulteress in real life avoid the street of the adulterous in your mind and don’t simply try to not think about certain things because that’s a good way to get you thinking about them you need to replace those unprofitable Thoughts with good thoughts thoughts that tend toward righteousness second apply this counsel in your dating relationships if you’re dating these truths have great implications about who you pursue and how you act when you pursue them avoid Danger preemptively Don’t Wait Till emotions and passions Cloud your judgment when it comes to expressing effect ction set clear boundaries that will not even bring you close to sexual passion and sin three apply this counsel in your friendships don’t pursue or maintain deep friendships with someone of the opposite gender who is not your spouse your closest friends and confidants should be your spouse and then your brethren of the same gender men with men women with women four apply this counsel in your counseling if someone of the opposite gender needs marriage counseling or Counseling in a deeply personal area do not counsel that person alone give counsel in the presence of another person preferably your own spouse or give that person counsel together with his spouse it is very easy for one forlorn in a relationship to become attached to a caring counselor and vice versa too many times this has resulted in tragedy among Believers number five apply this counsel in your traveling don’t go places where you know sexual temptation is likely to lurk whether places online or places in person or when you go make sure that you’ve set up safu so that sexual Temptation cannot reach you and when you’re walking and you see a possible temp in the distance don’t be ashamed to look away until the danger has passed number six apply this counsel in your activities don’t excuse sexual Temptation in Your Entertainment Leisure or cultural Pursuits just because it’s fun or humorous doesn’t mean it can’t be spiritually harmful just because it’s considered art or literature doesn’t mean it can’t be a stumbling block and just because everyone else even other Christians are doing it doesn’t mean it’s actually a wise or righteous thing to do men as the most basic of safeguards do not watch or play any media with sexual content or nudity in it that is like going right up to the Harlot store I would recommend much more stricter much stricter standards than that when it comes to Media but please at least that and don’t rely on a reactive Look Away strategy I’ll just look away whenever it comes up by the time you need to know you need to look away the damage is already done number seven tolerate no excuse for non-application let us not use curiosity cultural savviness or fun as excuses to tolerate the presence of sexual sin or sexual temptation there’s no potential knowledge experience or pleasure worth you crossing paths with seductive seductive and destructive sin you don’t have to fear missing out on something from the world some knowledge or some experience nothing in the world can ultimately satisfy you nothing in the world is ultimately necessary you ought to fear out missing or you want to fear missing out on God and on his satisfying way besides 1 Corinthians 14:20 says we are not to be experts when it comes to evil but infants we don’t need to know it intimately we don’t need to become all acquainted with it and Ephesians 5:12 says it’s disgraceful to even talk about what the unrighteous do in secret number eight be careful to acknowledge differences in application it’s worth noting that not all of us are tempted in the same way even when it comes to sexual Temptation men are generally tempted differently than women and what causes one person to stumble may not affect another person at all each person’s application of this counsel from God is going to look a little different but L anyone say that he’s completely unaffected by sexual Temptation oh I don’t need to apply any of this let me caution you well I suppose there are few rare cases out there of people who due to abnormal biology cannot be affected by sexual forces for the rest of us we were designed to be affected let me explain God gave you a sexual nature designed to be activated by sexual stimuli in marriage sexual sin uses those same stimuli outside of marriage to hurt and ENT trp that’s why sexual sin is so evil it twists God’s good design and awakens passions where they do not belong furthermore it is the goal of various worldly persons to gain your love attention and your money using sexual Allure they present content designed to awaken your sexuality and ultimately we know Satan himself the ruler of this world has designed various aspects of his evil World system to sexually ens snare and enslave abusing God’s design so in many senses you were designed to be affected by the world’s Temptations that’s why you must take them seriously don’t think that nothing can affect you now God has given us his spirit and his wisdom and his church to overcome these evil designs these evil intentions but we do not want to deceive ourselves about the danger number nine seek help in your application of God’s C counil as you seek to apply the Lord’s wisdom in the areas that I mention and other areas surely that I haven’t mentioned take advantage of the help God has given you in your spouse and in your church don’t pretend to your spouse that you’re totally impervious to Temptation because of your great love for her well that may seem romantic it’s not realistic tell your spouse how she can help you in this area and ask her how you can help her get help from your your brethren too through prayer counsel and encouragement though we cannot blame our sin on others we can’t say hey you didn’t help me enough each one must bear his own load as Galatians 65 says we can utilize the body of Christ and our spouses just as God meant to for our own strengthening number 10 and last help others and their application of God’s counsel let us resolve not to put any stumbling block before other people especially our spouses or our Brethren do not deprive your spouse of sexual refreshment that is what 1 Corinthians 7 says directly but along with that don’t drive your spouse away emotionally by your sinful Behavior so that it’s more difficult for your spouse to love you rather make it easier for your spouse to love you and to help you by shining forth Christ to your spouse don’t be careless in your dress or behavior as if it didn’t matter whether you’re causing another person to stumble or not into sexual sin instead watch out for your brothers and sisters and help them again each person is ultimately responsible for his own obedience or Disobedience but our duty is to help our Brothers and Sisters in Christ not hinder them Jesus says in Matthew 18:6 as you know but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to stumble it would be better for it for him to have a heavy Millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea but Jesus also says in Matthew 10:42 but whoever in the name of a disciple gives to one of these little ones even a cup of cold water the smallest kind of help to drink truly I say to you he shall not lose his reward in conclusion let us heed God’s Great counsel regarding sex and sexual sin keep your way far from sexual Temptation and why for the sake of the danger for the sake of God’s provision and for the sake of God’s assessment that will result in your punishment or reward let’s close in prayer oh Father there’s many things that we could say this is a great word and we know it has many applications for us God I pray that your people would indeed take it seriously as you have met because there is serious danger but also serious blessing at stake I pray God that you would indeed bring about the sweet bonds of love and refreshment in the marriages here at Calvary that you would draw husband and wife closer together as they listen to the wisdom of your word and as they mortify sin and the flesh for the sake of blessing for the sake of your reward for the sake of you father I pray that you would help us spirit I pray that you would Empower us to do this work because without you we cannot do it thank you for your word in Jesus name amen
August 21, 2016
Get Serious About Sexual Sin: Keep Your Way Far
In this sermon, David Capoccia looks at the teaching of Solomon in Proverbs 5 regarding sex and sexual sin. David Capoccia first explains from Proverbs 5 why these subjects are important to look at: the relevance of sexuality to all people, the credentials of the speaker, and the consequences of not listening to the teaching. David Capoccia then examines the main command of the passage and begins to explain why it is so important to proactively avoid sexual temptation:
1. Sexual sin’s deceptive destructiveness
2. God’s pleasurable provision
3. God’s all-assessing eye
Auto Transcript

Note: This rough transcript was automatically generated by YouTube’s AI algorithm. We provide it here for your convenience, but know it will surely contain errors as it has not been proofread or edited by a human.

good morning I’m happy to bring the wisdom of God’s word to you today I recognize it’s great responsibility but it’s also a joy because God’s word is really that great let’s pray great God lord we want to be fed by Your Word this morning you have great wisdom for us you have great good to bestow on us through your word but it’s sweet to sing these truths to give you praise God for your mercy and your kindness Lord we we Rejoice that no matter what kind of sins we have committed in our lives that there is forgiveness if we repent and turn to you you will cleanse us just as you promise and even the sins of our past there you have graciously ordained that there are ways of healing and you redeem even the evil things for a good purpose and yet God we are aware of the great damage of sin that can cause such damage that it can never be fully repaired in this life not until you create a new Heaven and a new Earth will the damage be totally removed so God I pray that you would enable Calvary and anyone listening this morning to appreciate what your word has to say so that we don’t damage ourselves so that we don’t bring Sorrows on ourselves that are totally unnecessary Lord that we can instead enjoy your Blessed Way help me God to be able to articulate this well and clearly and accurately and I pray that your spirit would work among your people today in Jesus name amen I want to begin this morning by actually reading our text so please open your Bibles to Proverbs Chapter 5 Proverbs 5 we’re going to be reading the entire chapter verses 1 to 23 I’m reading from the new am standard translation which is the version we had Pew if you would like to use those Bibles the page is Page 644 so Proverbs Chapter 5 let’s read the whole chapter starting in verse one follow along with me please as I read my son give attention to my wisdom incline your ear to my understanding that you may observe discretion and your lips May Reserve knowledge for the Lips of an adulteress drip honey and smoother than oil is her speech but in the end she is bitter as wormwood sharp as a two-edged sword her feet go down to death her steps take hold of sheal she does not Ponder the path of Life her ways are unstable she does not know it now then my sons listen to me and do not depart from the words of my of my mouth keep your way far from her and do not go near the door of her house or you will give your Vigor to others and your years to the cruel one and strangers will be filled with your strength and your hard-earned goods will go to the house of alien and you Gran at your final end when your flesh and your are consumed and you say how I have hated destruction and my heart spurn reproof I have not listened to the voice of my teachers nor inclined my ear to my instructors I was in utter ruin in the midst of the assembly and congregation drink water from your own sister and fresh water from your own well should your SP be dispersed abroad God streams of water in the streets let them be yours alone and not for strangers with you let your fountain be blessed and rejoice in the wife of your youth as a loving kind and a graceful dough let hers satisfy you at all times be exhilarated always with her love for why should you my son be exhilarated ated adulteress and embrac the bosom of a foreigner for the ways of a man are before the eyes of the Lord and he watches all his path his own iniquities will capture the wicked and he will be held with the cords of his sin he will die for lack of instruction and in the great his folly he will go astray the subjects of our text this morning are sex and sexual sin why does the Bible talk about these things and why are we looking at them today as an introduction I’d like to use the text itself to answer such questions why is it critical for you and I to give our full attention what we’re talking about this morning because notice that is exactly what the text itself calls us to do right in verse one my son give attention in your ear in other words listen up pay attention be all ears because what I’m about to say is very important why let me give you three main reasons three reasons why you need to listen up to what we’re about to talk about first the relevance of sexuality to each one of us the relevance of sexuality to each each one of us God created Humanity with a sexual nature so if you are human this morning then you’re included you also have a sexual nature this sexual nature is not evil in itself it was designed by God for marriage has great capacity for goodness and happiness but because of the fall of Adam and Eve it also has great capacity for evil and harm and so your sexual ity must be properly stewarded because of the way God has made each one of you therefore today’s teaching is very relevant to you more than this we live as you know in an extremely sexualized World system that presents to us many opportunities sexual Liberty and sexual sin I don’t need to give you examples you know the immoral images words music clothing and and behavior that characterize our day many today even many Christians have been caught and ens snared by sexual sin therefore because of the world we live in today’s teaching is extremely extremely relevant for us furthermore your sexual behavior as Christians is one of the most obious testimonies as to whether you are a follower of Christ Christ or not consider in the Old Testament many of the commands given by God in the penud to Israel relate to proper sexual behavior why well because Israel was not to act like the wicked Nations that God was driving out before them God told Israel that they to be a holy nation one of the most obvious marks of that Holiness was their sexual behavior they were to be set apart totally different from the other nations contrast is even Starker in the New Testament at the Times where Jesus and the apostles Jesus or the apostles list the sins that characterize the evil heart or the evil World guess which sin is always first or second on the list sexual immorality sexual sin for examples of this you can look at Mark 7:21 1 Corinthians 69 And1 Galatians 5:19 in other places actually this is not surprising considering what we just said about man’s sexual nature when man rejects God he cannot control the powerful nature that God gave him and consequently it enslaves him just as Romans 1 says he becomes totally at the mercy of his sexual desires and therefore the Wicked Man degrades himself with greater and greater sexual perversions in contrast the expectation of Christians is that they will manifest the fruit of the spirit which includes self-control God calls each Christian man and each Christian woman possess his own vessel that is his own body sanctification and honor just as 1 Thessalonians 4:4 says therefore if you are a Christian this morning you have a High Calling how will you attain it you need to hear God’s instruction you need to hear God’s instruction in this area so again today’s teaching is exceedingly relevant to you so already we see one reason why we’ve got to perk up ears and listen we are talking about something that is critically relevant for everyone everyone here if not directly now than indirectly in the future but why else should you listen attentively a second reason the credentials of the speaker you should pay attention because of the credentials of the speaker who is it that’s going to give us this teaching on sexual sin and why should we care what he has to say well in one sense I’m the one who’s teaching you I’m the one who’s talking to you I’m not the original speaker I’m not giving you my wisdom I’m just reporting the words of another who’s actually speaking right here in our text who am I talking about Solomon Solomon the spirit filled eminently wise and righteous king of ancient is to fully appreciate the fact that it’s Solomon talking to us notice something in the text look at verse one again he says my son give attention and then down in verse seven now then my sons listen to me and then verse 20 for why should you my son notice the role that Solomon takes for himself this is a father speaking to his sons Solomon speaks as a father why does that matter because if he’s a father that means Solomon cares about his audience father does not care about his children fathers love their they want what’s best for their children they want things to go well for their children they see their children succeed and not come to harm Solomon’s audience then can take heart knowing that he speaks to them sincerely for their good these aren’t some annoying rules he’s propounding because it’s just his duty or because he enjoys making people suffer and taking the fun out of their lives these are rules designed to bring true benefit to the hearers therefore my brothers and sisters listen this morning Solomon speaks to you out of love he wants to see you benefit and live the blessed life this is really what the Book of Proverbs is all about Solomon is essentially saying throughout this book I want to show you for your own sake the best path to follow in this life but it’s not just that Solomon has sincere caring intentions he also has the wisdom to speak authoritatively this is not just an affection father speaking to Sons this is a wise King speaking to servants and subjects indeed while the speaker takes on the role and disposition of a father speaking to his sons and no doubt Solomon did teach these things to his sons or at least attempted to these teachings were actually designed more broadly for the young men at Solomon’s Court these were this was not for his actual Sons Lely but for his young men the young men who would be serving the king court or who were going to be serving around Israel and who needed to be instructed in Wise living and wise thinking Solomon was the perfect man to give them this teaching why because God had supernaturally given Solomon wisdom and understanding you remember back in first King 3 God Appears to Solomon ask Solomon what Solomon wants from God and Solomon asks for wisdom in order that he might properly Shepherd God’s people this pleased God God granted Solomon’s righteous request and so apart from our Lord Jesus Christ no one in history better understood the world the way life works and what is the best way to live that life than King Solomon none of us can hear Solomon’s words and say oh well he doesn’t really get it he doesn’t know what it’s like in the real world oh he does he understands the real world better than you do Solomon received his Discerning heart from God he knows what he’s talking about yes Solomon himself did depart from wisdom in his later years nevertheless these writings probably written in the early to middle part of his Reign are thoroughly trustworthy and thly authoritative Solomon knows what he’s talking about so listen up give attention to the manifold wisdom of Solomon but this isn’t just Solomon Solomon May truly care and he may have great wisdom but Solomon actually speaks to us by the spirit of God so who is the one really speaking to us it is God himself it is the father it is Christ it is the holy spirit it is is our Triune God and our good God like Solomon is not promulgating tyrannical rules to our hurt he is giving us wisdom for our benefit this is so that we might be blessed this is so we might be happy Solomon May teach you like a father does his son but he’s a standing for the heavenly father who is doing the very same thing it calvary this morning your God is speaking to you like a father his son he’s saying son daughter listen to me I desire your benefit I want the good way for you these are not arbitrary commands I’m laying before you I’m giving you perfectly wise counsel so so that you might obtain the best life this is the unique thing about the angle of the Book of Proverbs the book doesn’t say do this because God so and it might make your life totally terrible but when you die everything will be much better no Proverbs is written from an angle that shows how in this life too you might know the best and happiest way to live so happens that the best way to live is also the righteous way the way that emulates God’s character way that results in eternal life we could say much more about the final judgment and eternal reward and those types of things but the angle of the Book of Proverbs is you can be blessed in this life if you listen to God’s counsel you can live the best way here so if we are willing to submit ourselves to the counsil of the supernaturally wise Solomon how much more the god of the universe the originator of wisdom the all powerful and omniscient one the king of creation he made us he made marriage he made sex don’t you think that God knows what he’s talking about you can trust God’s counsil here so brothers and sisters based on who’s speaking to us today give your full attention mark this down put it carefully in the storehouse of your mind Solomon and really God is speaking to us out of perfect wisdom and out of a genuine desire to do us good so we see a second reason we should listen the credentials of the speaker but what’s the last reason we should not only listen because the subject is exceedingly relevant to all of us we should not only listen because the speaker knows his subject perfectly and truly cares about us but there’s a third reason the consequences of not listening the third reason we should pay attention is the consequences of listening notice that this passage is bookended by exhortations relating to the teaching of the speaker as we already saw verse one and also verse two they call on the audience to listen to this instruction but notice verses 22 and 23 which say his own iniquities will capture the wicked and he will be held with the cords of his sin he will die for lack of instruction in the greatness of his folly he will go astray let these words sober you this morning what is the spirit of God saying the spirit says if you don’t listen if you treat this counil lightly if you ignore it if you depart from it know for sure that you will be ens snared by your own sin and you will ultimately die notice the word held in verse 22 this is not any old grip it could be translated held fast this is a Sure Grip Solomon is saying if you don’t listen you will fall into and your sin will hold you as an a vice grip be nearly impossible for you to escape and what will be the result then of you ignoring this teaching total Destruction you’ll be ruined you’ll be cursed by God you will die and though it’s not stated here we are aware that Eternal death too is included the of treating God’s instruction and counsel lightly is his Eternal wrath so again my brothers and sisters hear the sober teaching of godday the consequences of you’re not listening are sure ensnarement and destruction to recap then this first segment of the sermon why are we looking at this passage why are we talking about sex and sex sin first because this subject is intensely relevant to all of us due to our human Natures due to our society and due to our new calling as Christians second because of the speaker credentials Solomon knows what he’s talking about and he cares and God who speaks through Solomon knows even more he cares even more and third because of the consequences of not listening total ensnarement sin and destruction you and I need to know this teaching you and I need to be careful to apply it in our own lives and we need to be careful to teach it to our new and younger Brethren notice too that is stated right here in the text verse two Solomon gives us a purpose for his teaching look at it again that you may observe discretion and your lips May Reserve knowledge Solomon says this is for you and this is for your lips that is this is for you to teach others your lips should store up this knowledge and then make it known to those who haven’t heard it so what is God’s teaching for us then what is God’s perfect wisdom that we might walk the best way in this area of Our Lives God’s wisdom in this chapter comes down to one main erative and it’s the subtitle of my sermon and it’s found in verse 8 look at that verse Solomon says God says keep your way far from her and do not go near the door of her house this is such simple command this is such simple counsel and yet it is so profound are you hearing the wisdom of the Lord this morning keep your way far from her and do not go near the door of her house let’s expound this teaching for a moment who is the her and verse 8 this is the adulteress in in verse three the Hebrew word translated adulterous here is zor the word can be translated strange woman woman who turns aside to Lodge or a foreign woman this is not a woman that you already intimately know through theen of marriage this is any other woman who tempted to go outside God’s design for sex such women were often times literally foreigners in ancient Israel they were not Hebrews and they professed allegiance to Yahweh therefore their sexual morals were quite different but because of this definition of zor it is is right for us to understand the adulterous to represent not simply a female adulterer but any kind of immoral Temptation so we’re talking male and female tangible and intangible within the heart and outside with the body any kind of immorality is represented here by the adulteress so throughout this sermon when I to the adulterous understand that I’m referring to sexual sin in general enal in Israel what would this have looked like well this would have been Temptations toward lustful thoughts fornication relationships with yet married though the Israelites tended to marry young so fornication wasn’t as much of an issue adultery anding prostitutes and or cult prostitutes that would be what the original speaker has in mind now where did these various Temptations towards sexual sin take place in Israel it married but there are certain common situations a prostitute might solicit customers in public spaces like City Gates or the city Square we see Tamar judah’s daughter pretending to be a cult prostitute and doing Justice in Genesis 38 a prostitute might simply provocatively and walk the spaces near her home so that she might easily return home with her customers a cult prostitute might work advertised near a shrine to a pagan deity as a horrific example of this according to Second Kings 23 during Josiah’s Reign King Josiah had to tear down rooms made for cult prostitutes had been built into God’s Temple itself that was going to be their place of operation God’s Temple and of course there was the Wayward husband or wife whose house and place of Temptation could be anywhere unlike the prostitute the adulterer or the adulteress tried to keep his designs totally secret from the community in reaction to these vared kinds of Temptation notice again God’s counsel keep your way far from her and not go near the door of her house this is essentially one command given in two different ways the Hebrew verb translated keep your way far can also be translated widen your way remove your way draw your way be a good way off the Hebrew verb translated do not go near can also be translated not approach what Solomon is saying here is that you and I take note where the adulteress lives and where she frequently goes and then don’t even go near those areas what the Temptation is or is likely to appear don’t approach Don’t Go Near her house Don’t Go Near her street don’t go to the places that she frequents if a prostitute is flying her trade in one gate use a different one or if you know she’s there at a certain time of day don’t go there during that time of day it doesn’t matter how wide you need to make your way make sure as much as possible that you and she do even get close to each other note this is not merely a reactive strategy this isn’t oh there’s the adulteress with a provocative get up I better leave that’s good you need to do that but you need to do better than that you need a proactive strategy that says I want to make sure that I don’t even see her if possible I don’t want to risk even running into her Temptation so an approach is extremely Furious perhaps at first glance this seems strange to us or even ridiculous one might ask you’re going to go through all that trouble just to avoid passing by one prostitute the answer is absolutely yes why why such a serious stance against sexual sin why work so hard to keep your way far from temptation why suffer any cost to avoid it as much as possible the anwers to that question occupy the rest of the passage and therefore they’re going to occupy the rest of the sermon Solomon is going to give us three reasons why taking such a serious proactive approach towards sexual temptation is necessary each one of us if we want to live the wise and blessed life I’ll give you the three reasons and then we’ll look at each in turn as we move to the text we’re actually only going to be able to get through the first reason today we’ll have to pick reasons two and three next week but here are the three reasons in our passage why do whatever it takes to keep your way far from the adultery reason one because of sexual sin’s deceptive destructiveness reason two because of God’s pleasurable provision reason three because of God’s all assessing eye let’s start with the first this is going to occupy the rest of the sermon today what’s the first reason again sexual sins deceptive destructiveness keep your way far because of sexual sins deive destructiveness back up with me to three where we begin to see this point it says for the Lips of an adulterous honey and smoother than oil is her speech Solomon is richly ping for us how attractive the adulteress and consequently adultery with her can appear it’s like her lips are dripping with honey the Hebrews knew nothing sweeter than honey the adulteress appears to be full of sweetness to be enjoyed abundant sweetness speech moreover is smoother than oil word for speech can also be translated mouth or pallet her mouth appears smooth and attractive even Anointed with a perfumed olive oil now while this is an appealing visual picture Solomon evokes more than the appearance of the adulterers these pictures are also metaphorical for the words she says the reason her lips drip honey and her mouth is so smooth is because she has not away with words her words en chanting we saw an example of this earlier in our service our reading in Proverbs 7 the adulteress says things to you that make her love and her sexual pleasure sounds so irresistible she makes you feel good about yourself she flatters you she makes promises to you she makes you feel wanted and special she makes you feel secure she talk talks you in exactly the way you want to be talked to she really seems to care about you and what you want and need when it comes to sexual Temptation we often discuss the power of visual stimula especially toward men but just as powerful if not more powerful for both men and women is the power of the spoken or written word skillful words can fully engage the imagination and greatly Stoke desire it’s no wonder that many ancient cultures connected skill with words with magic or Divine ability it’s almost like the smooth talker is able to lay a spell on someone with his words this is essentially what sexual sin is able to do whatever your previous vows and convictions your previous love of the Lord the adulteress is able to make herself appear so desirable to you that you easily forget or ignore all those reasons why you must resist her tragically this is exactly as many of those who have slipped into deep sexual sin have confessed when ask why they did what they did they say things like I didn’t even think about the consequences I wasn’t thinking at all do you see then why it’s so important for you to keep your way far from don’t give her a chance to sweet talk you don’t give her a chance to you with her looks don’t give her a chance to cast her spell on you truly sexual sin it presents its full charms to you is very difficult to resist therefore if you want to be wise don’t even risk meeting with it if you accidentally encounter the adulterous flee but otherwise keep keep your way far from her because the reality is she is at all like she seems sexual never delivers to you what it promises the sin May good for a brief amount of time but then verse four says in the end she is bitter as wormwood sharp as a two-edged sword you let charm you you seek to taste her sweetness and for a little while she is quite enjoyable but then the aftertaste comes and it’s bitter as wormwood the wormwood plant is used throughout the Bible as a symbol of bitterness the plant actually contains a poison gives it its extremely bitter taste large amounts of this pois actually lethal the adulteress doesn’t satisfy at all she leaves a horrible and bitter taste and even worse her mouth is not smooth but razor sharp like a double-edged sword a danger weapon designed for injuring and killing to kiss the seemingly sweet mouth of the adulteress is to taste bitterness and gash yourself grievously the preceding verses make this even clearer look at verses five and six her feet go down to death her steps take hold of sh she does not Ponder the path of Life her way are unstable she does not know it she’s not just bitter and injuring she actually people down towards total death and ruin now in mind in this description and explanation about death we are aware that the penalty for adultery in Israel was actually death so this could be literally fulfilled you’re found to be an adulterer if you’re caught in adultery you could be put to death though as Pastor has made clear in some of his sermons it’s not likely that that rule or that death penalty was enforced all the time in fact it probably was rarely enforced instead a divorce or you couldn’t actually prove that the person was caught in the act you only had the suspicion so it’s possible that the death penalty is meant here but it’s certainly more than that whether you are put to death by the legal system or not you will go towards death you will suffer death of a kind because she is walking on the path toward grave but the thing is according to verse six she doesn’t even realize what she’s doing she does not Ponder she does not think about the path of life she’s never stopped to consider whether what she’s doing is good or whether will lead to True benefit in her life or in the lives of her lovers she chooses not to think about it she doesn’t consider the future and she doesn’t want you to either keeps on staggering toward the grave inviting you to come along notice the phrase in verse 5 take hold this is the same word that’s used in verse 23 which means hold fast she’s got a firm hold on sheal is definitely her destination the place of the Dead that is where she is going and she wants you to go with her do you see again why you need to keep your way far from the adulter far from sexual Temptation she is bitter and destroys she doesn’t realize it and she doesn’t want you to either but there’s more Solomon gets even more specific about the damage sexual sin will do to you look at verses 9- 14 we’ll read those again or you will give your Vigor to others and your years to the cruel ones and strangers will be filled with your strength and your hard earned Goods will go to the house of an alien and you groan at your final end when your flesh and your body are consumed and you say how I’ve hated instruction and my heart spurn reproof I have not listened to the voice of my teachers nor inclin my ear to my instructors I was almost in utter ruin in the midst of the assembly and congregation how precisely will the adulteress hurt you what will messing with sexual sin cost you verse 9 it will cost you your time and energy while your strength should be spent serving God and caring for your own family sexual causes you to waste your time chasing after sexual pleasure and working hard to keep it a secret from others it will cost you your wealth you will have to keep using up your family’s resources to pay for prostitutes the goods you obtain in your job which are meant for your family instead must be used to satisfy your adulterous lover the money you worked hard to earn so that you might provide for your children must instead be used to support the children that were born illegitimately in other words your sexual sin is going to cause your wealth to be transferred to people who have scant relation to you in fact who have no relation to God’s people at all the wealth God gave to you to enjoy and to instead goes to Godless strangers and aliens vers 11 it will cost you your health the stress of maintaining secret sin will take its toll on you the extra work that you have to do because your living cost have skyrocketed will break your body and numb your mind and sharing sexual partners with others will soon likely give you a painful and embarrassing venal disease verses 12 to 13 you’ll be filled with regret at the end of your life due to how you didn’t listen to warnings and rebukes you had the teachers you had the instruction available to you you had people who cared about you and who reached out to you but you would not listen to any of them and instead decided to reap what you sowed this will be very bitter to you when you realize it and then verse 14 a curious verse it translated multiple ways as translated The New American Standard it seems to indicate that even in this Bleak situ there’s still some hope because he says I was almost in utter ruin I didn’t make it into utter R ruin but I was close that is one way to translate it but the word translated ruin or but the word translated almost can also be translated soon that is the opposite of a hopeful interpretation I was soon in utter ruin I was quickly in ruin it didn’t take long for me to ruin myself also the word translated ruin is literally the word evil that was soon or almost in all evil utter evil so there are two broad senses we can take these verses either the sexual sinner one day confess that he quickly ruined or nearly ruined his whole life by his sin or he will confess that he gradually lost almost all shame and restraint in pursuit of his sin he was soon in all evil nothing could stop him from going after his L he craved it and sought it more and more and greater degrees and all of this in the midst of the assembly and congregation his sin is no longer secret his ruin is no longer unnoticed everyone in the community can see how he has ruined himself by pursuing sexual sin the sinner has completely lost the community’s resp respect and is now merely an object of contempt and pity he has become a tragic tale to warn others do you want this to happen to you are you willing to risk it can you see why God is so wise to counsel you keep your way far from her don’t even go near the door of her house you cannot afford to play with sexual fire immorality is too deceptive and too destructive for you to even go near it you want to be happy if you want to be blessed do whatever it takes to stay far away but someone will say I can handle it I can go near without getting burned I’m too smart for the adulteress I’m strong enough to resist her charms I have great faith please do not think so foolishly this scripture does not say in vain and as we read earlier Proverbs 7:26 for many are the victims that she the adulteress has cast down and numerous are all her slain I’m sure there were many people who thought oh I’m strong enough they were just another victim 1 Corinthians 10:12 similarly cautions therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed that he does not fall you need to listen to instruction if you think you’re standing you need to listen to instruction to actually make sure you don’t fall that you don’t hurt yourself don’t overestimate your own abilities those who are truly wise and truly strong in faith believe God enough to not even go near your sexual sin if you really have faith then you won’t go near that’s the way you prove whether you’re really mature you see this is God’s heart God wants to spare you Solomon wants to spare you I want to spare you Don’t Go Near sexual Temptation don’t simply it when it comes that’s good but you must do more think ahead and avoid the people the places and the activities sexual temptation is going to be a real danger to you know that that doing this will you there will be some useful places that you will no longer be able to visit there will be some pleasant activities you will no longer be able to partake in there will be some entertaining people she’ll no longer be able to hang out with also if you heed God’s counsel many many people will think you are just plain weird even Christians but this is the wise and good way of God he’s made it PL to us listen to your heavenly father he knows what he’s talking about he genuinely cares for you and in this the wisdom of God is totally consistent in the scriptures Jesus the full manifestation of God’s goodness righteousness and wisdom says this in the sermon on in Matthew 5 actually please take your Bibles and go over there Matthew 5 Proverbs Matthew 5 m Matthew 5 this is Page 960 in the Bible actually 961 because we’re looking at verses 27 to 30 as part of his Sermon on the Mount Jesus happens to visit the subject of adultery notice what he says verse 27 you have heard that it said You shall not commit adultery but I say to you that everyone who look a woman with Lust For Her has already committed adultery with her in his heart and now notice this next part if your ride makes you stumble tear it out and throw it from you for it is better for you to lose one of the parts of your body a useful part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell if your right hand makes you stumble cut it off and throw it from you for it is better for you to lose one of the parts of your body then for your whole body to go into hell Jesus says the same thing that Solomon does No sacrifice is too great in order to keep you out of the path of sexual sin now obviously you are not to take yourself out of the world that’s clear from other scriptures you say well that’s a logical extension I just have to totally away from people no you still have to be in the world short of taking yourself out of the world there is no relationship no place no experience no activity worth keeping if sexual danger lurks within it if you want to be happy if you want to be blessed listen to the wisdom of God this is all the first reason why we keep our way far keep your way far because of sexual sins deceptive destructiveness before we move on from this point and really close today please let me ask you some questions to get you think about the application of this truth please ask yourself these things is there sexual sin in your life have you been ignoring its deceptive destructiveness somehow believing that you will be the exception you will be able to enjoy it unscathed this is not true this sin will only ruin you more and more and then damn you forever repent now Escape now turn away from your sin now and turn to Christ he is willing to forgive he will heal but you must turn away from and cut off access to that old sin so that it doesn’t again bring you under bondage do you only have a reactive strategy to sexual sin or do you actually have Implement a proactive strategy active strategy is not enough sexual sin is too deceptive and too destructive for you to treat so lightly where in your life do you find the strongest and most frequent sexual Temptations where have you been excusing the presence of sexual orentation in order that you may enjoy something else say certain television show certain video game or a certain relationship with another person you are going to need to move your way if you want to be wise if you want to be blessed you cannot even go near sexual sin you can no longer excuse its presence you must totally off access that is God’s wisdom do you pray to God God please deliver me from sexual sin and sexual Temptation and yet at the same time contradict your prayers by constantly presenting yourself to the presence of sexual sin do you think God will hear your prayer when you con what you ask trust God enough that no matter the C of cutting off sexual sin the prospect of gaining God’s blessing and of ultimately enjoying fellowship with Christ himself because you can enjoy fellowship with Christ and still hold on to your sin do you believe that it’s worth it to gain Christ it to gain God’s blessing is worth it no matter the cost because God really knows what’s good please consider these questions even as we end today sexual sin is serious we need to treat it that way now as with so many of God’s commands God doesn’t simply command to put off the evil thing but he also says to put on the righteous thing to every negative command there is a positive command and and so it is here God doesn’t simply say to remove yourself from the charms of the adulteress he also commands that you present yourself receive and enjoy the charms of your spouse this is a beautiful and incredible part of God’s counsil and it’s our next point but we have to pause we have to pick it up there next week so I hope be back to hear the positive side of God’s command let’s close in prayer father this is a great word it is a wiise word it is such a realistic word God we can come up with our own wisdom or we can look to the wisdom of the world or we can come up things that contradict what your word actually says and we think that that’s worship but God you’ve made yourself so plain God the the way you’ve created us is good the way you’ve created marriage and sex is good but God it’s so good and and so powerful that we know we need to Steward it in a serious way and part of that stewardship is doing exactly as you demanded here keeping our way far from sexual Temptation not even going near it thinking about where it might appear and not even risk going that direction God you were so good to let us know about this because you want to spare us you want us to be happy you want us to be blessed we thank you for your heart God I pray that you would cause the people who have heard this teaching who have heard this word to believe you and to wait for your reward to say I am willing to give up these things if that’s God’s counsel because I can trust God I can trust my father who really cares about me Lord I pray spirit that you’d make the eyes of all of our hearts open and that we would be applying this Truth for our own benefit in Jesus name amen
August 14, 2016
Wisdom from God

Answers Bible Curriculum Year 2 Quarter 2 Lesson 8

In this lesson, David Capoccia overviews the book of Proverbs. After a quiz on what is really a biblical proverb, David Capoccia discusses the background of Proverbs, the purpose of Proverbs given in its introductory chapters, and the broad array of life topics addressed in Proverbs. David Capoccia finishes by asking whether we value and pay more attention to the world’s so-called wisdom or God’s.

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them and that we would see its great superiority to anything the world has to offer father give me the ability to speak clearly and work in the hearts of your people edify them build them up make them more mature in Jesus name amen oh we start with the quits Proverbs Pop Quiz there are many Proverbs in the world today a proverb is just a set of wise words or a memorable pithy statement many of these circulate in our culture even in America and it can be easy to confuse common Proverbs with the Proverbs of the Bible so let’s see if we can tell the difference I’m going to display 10 Proverbs on the screen and in your mind decide whether that proverb comes from the Bible or is actually a common proverb from the world don’t answer these out loud I’m going to give you a few seconds make the decision in your mind common proverb or Bible proverb and then we’ll discuss the answer okay so I’ll display it give you a few seconds and then we’ll discuss the answer questions about what we’re about to do okay so first proverb maybe some of these are easier than others a journey of a Thousand Miles begins with a single step common proverb a Bible proverb this is a common proverb this is actually from Lao Tzu ancient Chinese philosopher founder of taoism not from the Bible next Penny saved is a penny earned well that’s definitely not in the Bible they didn’t even have pennies back in the Old Testament times this is a common proverb actually a misquotation of some things that Ben Franklin wrote next spare the rod spoil the child it’s actually a common proverb it sounds similar to some things that the Bible says but these words are not in the Bible this phrase actually comes from a 16th century satirical poem next a joyful heart is good medicine that’s a Bible proverb that comes from Proverbs 17 22. a joyful heart is good medicine but a broken Spirit dries up the bones click the next one God helps those who help themselves this is a common proverb not in the Bible the origin is uncertain but you can find very similar statements as far back as ancient Pagan Greek plagues they didn’t refer to one God they would refer to many gods but you should ask because then the gods will help you five more the early bird gets the worm well that’s not in the Bible that’s a common proverb origin unknown but first recorded in a book of English Proverbs in 1670.

cleanliness is Next to Godliness this is also a common proverb it’s actually very various forms of it first appear in ancient Babylonian religious tracks pretty ancient but we can thank John Wesley for giving us the phrase in our uh English English version he used it in a sermon in 1791.

we don’t have the full context of that but he said cleanliness is indeed Next to Godliness next follow your heart that is a common proverb Unknown Origin flatly contradicts what the Bible teaches though in a funny way the phrase is in the Bible but there’s some context there’s a caveat that totally changes the meaning of the phrase Ecclesiastes 11 9 says Rejoice young men during your childhood and let your heart be pleasant during the days of your young days of Young Manhood and follow the impulses of your heart and the desires of your eyes yet know that God will bring you the Judgment for all these things a little bit different meaning two more wealth makes many friends that’s a Bible proverb it’s actually in the Bible Proverbs 19 4 wealth adds many friends but a poor man is separated from his friend last one patience is a virtue every time you heard that one hurry up oh patience is virtue actually a common proverb the phrase doesn’t appear in the Bible its origin appears to be a 14th century uh Middle English poem patience is mentioned as a fruit of the spirit in the New Testament but it’s never specifically said to be a virtue so we see some common and biblical Proverbs not just because a proverb doesn’t come from the Bible doesn’t mean it’s useless or evil there’s sometimes basic wisdom to be found even in common Proverbs but that which is truly useful that which is superior to any proverb of man is found in the Bible yet how much more well-known are common Proverbs than the Proverbs of God let’s take a look at God’s Proverbs and do our best to keep straight what is divine wisdom and what is merely man’s Wisdom let’s turn now to background information on the Book of Proverbs the original Hebrew title of this book is the Proverbs of Solomon Solomon wrote most of the Proverbs though some of the Proverbs in this book were actually written by other people they’re identified as such the book was not written or at least did not achieve its final form until after the days of Hezekiah because one section of Proverbs says these are written by Hezekiah copies of Solomon’s proverbs so the final form of this book had to come after Hezekiah and the divided Kingdom Period the book is written as Hebrew Poetry meaning we’re going to see a lot of parallelism remember we saw that with the Psalms this is the defining aspect of Hebrew poetry parallelism setting those corresponding statements next to each other good for memory good for emphasis good for vivid pictures and allows you to draw out the connections between even things that seem unrelated the book is written in the perspective of a father passing on wisdom to his son passing on advice to his son but certainly this book was meant to be instructed to more than Solomon’s immediate children this was actually instruction for all the young men that were coming to serve in Solomon’s court or the other serving in the court of the Kings Solomon probably wrote These in the early part of his Reign before he set aside wisdom and determined to follow folly and he became idolatrous Proverbs says 31 chapters the first 10 chapters give introduction and specific exhortations to the young the preceding chapters those after chapter 10 are little are they’re not tightly structured you can’t see a discernible or largely you can’t see a discernible order to the Proverbs that are presented though some of them are related to the Proverbs around them towards the end of The Book of Proverbs we see their Proverbs again being more purposefully grouped especially in the famous two chapters last two chapters proverbs 31 being the most famous two interpretive principles to remember as you go through Proverbs as we go through Proverbs and you may remember these a few in our hermeneutics class some years ago first Proverbs gives true principles but do not always describe absolutes Proverbs gives true principles and does not always describe absolutes you’ll find that for many of the statements in Proverbs there are exceptions but this is not because the Bible is an error it’s the design of the Proverbs to describe what is generally true a true principle of life they allow for exceptions second principle we want to remember is that proverbs describes life but doesn’t always tell us directly how we should react to life as we saw earlier one of the Proverbs says that wealth brings many friends and poverty causes many to lose even their one friend if they only have one friend left and they become poor forget it that friend is gone that’s generally true in life but how should you react to that does that mean that you should try to become wealthy and gain friends that way does that mean you should befriend the poor man who has no friends does that mean that you should be aware of your so-called friends if you’re wealthy well the proverb doesn’t say it just describes reality and it provokes you to think about what is the right way to react indeed as compact statements of wisdom many Proverbs take time to fully understand their meaning or implication and as interpreters of the Bible we need to consider the rest of the scriptures whenever we’re looking at a proverb and so we can say well even for that problem we just mentioned about wealth and Friends well what do the rest of the scriptures say well we can go to James specifically and it says don’t treat the wealthy man better um and don’t treat the poor man worse because of his wealth so we can tease out more of the implications of a specific proverb well now that we have some background let’s actually look at the first two chapters of Proverbs and we’ll hear from the author why he writes the book turn first please to Proverbs Chapter 1 and look at verses 1 to 7.

you can follow along using your student guides well on page 65 you can record some notes there but in the Bible if you’re using the Pew Bible on page 641 if you like Pastor may have gone through this passage recently I don’t know it seems fresh in my mind but let’s read it again Proverbs 1 1-7 the Proverbs of Solomon the son of David king of Israel to no wisdom and instruction to discern the sayings of understanding to receive instruction in Wise Behavior righteousness Justice and Equity to give Prudence to the naive to the youth knowledge and discretion a wise man will hear an increase in learning and a man of understanding will acquire wise counsel to understand a proverb and a figure the words of the wise and the riddles the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge fools despise wisdom and instruction let’s ask a few questions about this task text what is the purpose of this book according to the author well he says to know wisdom but he already apparently knows wisdom if he’s writing this book so we need to understand that in a slightly different way the writer knows wisdom but what does he want to do with it yeah Dwayne exactly he wants the reader to know wisdom he wants to give wisdom to give Prudence to the naive it says in verse 4. he doesn’t simply want to say hey I know a lot he says I want you to know it the book is designed to give wisdom now to whom is this book directed a couple different audiences actually well he says the young to the youth knowledge and discretion so he means this to the young especially his own children who else yeah Danielle yeah it says this is actually also for people who already have some wisdom they’re gonna gain more and then as I mentioned he says this is also to the naive this is to the people who don’t have any wisdom yet who are still walking around uh without knowledge it’s to all of those people they can all benefit whether you’re a youth whether you’re naive and simple or whether you already have wisdom you’re going to gain benefit from the wisdom of this book now look down to verse 7 and notice its parallelism they’re the connection is not explicitly drawn for us which two kinds of people are contrasted in verse seven yeah Magda the wise man and the fool now it doesn’t specifically say anything about a wise man but we can discern the connection because the second half of verse seven what is the main difference between a wise man and a fool yeah Craig he uh mentions that earlier in verse five and six but in verse seven what is the what is the difference he wants to draw out yeah Judy exactly the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge but fools despise wisdom and instruction by implication fools don’t fear the lord they despise wisdom and instruction but those who love wisdom and destruction the actual wise they do fear the lord this is said to be the beginning of knowledge the most basic part of true understanding if you want to be wise you must fear the lord now what does it mean to fear the lord we see that phrase a lot in the Old Testament even in the New Testament what does it mean if you’re the Lord yeah boy okay I think you you mentioned uh some good points there to repeat your comment one of the aspects of this fear is a reverence for God an offer God that is connected to obedience a lot of the exhortations to fear the lord are another way of saying obey the Lord if you fear the lord you’re going to obey him but just you correctly identified Roy this has to do with a heart condition you ought to reverence the Lord you want to have a feeling of fear towards the Lord now I just want to explore a little bit more that idea of reverence because we often describe even our Christian experience as the holy fear that we are to have as Christians that’s an awe or a reverence for God and that’s true but it’s interesting to me that the words for fear in both the Old and New Testaments contain the idea of Terror or dread should we cower in fear of God should we be terrified of God well we don’t know him and he’s our enemy then absolutely I think Roy was alluding to that but if we do know him though we don’t tremble at the prospect of punishment because that has been taken care of once and for all by Christ we nonetheless ought to tremble at the absolute Holiness the set apartness the otherness of God I mean we consider his various aspects the purity of God he’s so pure that anything impure that gets near him is consumed automatically or the incredible power of God he’s able to destroy or create by a simple word the tremendous authority of God he decides all things through his will he holds everything together the omniscient Judgment of God that knows every thought will assess it will call it to account not just thoughts but words and deeds as well and he will determine what is worthy of reward and what is waste for the believer it will be what is reward what is waste no I stress again this fear I’m talking about is not the fear of punishment of Justice being poured out on us but the kind of fear that you would experience if you actually met an angel and you knew it I mean could you imagine there’s an angel and he has a message from God for you now don’t expect that that’s not what God does today but we certainly see that happening in the Bible and we see the reaction of people it would be the same reaction that we would have because you know the power that an angel has that’s given to it by God it’s a supernatural being you know the authority that it has you know it’s total otherness it’s not human it’s not like anyone or anything you know and so you would be filled with Terror even though you know that the Angel’s on your side because you belong to Christ he’s a he’s a servant to you to the Brethren of Christ nonetheless you would naturally feel this terrified awe at beholding the otherness of this being well that in a way describes I think what the Bible talks about with the fear of God it’s not the fear of just punishment but it’s that fear of someone who’s totally different and powerful and holy we ought to have even in our own reverence for God a tinge of Terror because he’s just that different we could perhaps look for other analogies but there’s something to that just to illustrate that a little bit more in the New Testament word to describe holy fear is phobia and you see how that comes down to us in our day so the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom The Book of Proverbs it’s written To Us by Solomon but there are a few other authors and ultimately it is by the Holy Spirit and it’s given to us that we might gain wisdom the very wisdom of the awesome God the other God the one who is totally set apart but how can you make sure that you actually benefit from this wisdom well Proverbs 2 has more to tell us turn now to the next chapter and let’s look at Proverbs 2 1-9 I forgot to list those points there but you see them on the screen purpose of Proverbs to give wisdom has a number of intended audience and the most fundamental aspect of wisdom is to fear the lord or Proverbs 2 1-9 let’s read this and see how we can actually benefit from wisdom first one my son if you will receive my words and treasure my Commandments within you make your ear attentive to wisdom incline your heart to understanding for if you cry for discernment lift your voice for understanding if you see caress silver and search for her as for Hidden Treasures then you will discern the fear of the Lord and discover the knowledge of God for the Lord gives wisdom from his mouth come knowledge and understanding he stores up sound wisdom for the upright he is a shield to those who walk in Integrity guarding the paths of justice and he preserves the way of his Godly ones then you will discern righteousness and Justice and equity in every good course okay let’s ask some more questions of this text to be a wise person to gain the benefits of wisdom we need to have a certain attitude regarding wisdom what kind of attitude according to this passage one of acceptance that’s true we do want to receive what is given to us by God but we can characterize it as something further seeking yes we are seeking but how would you describe that seeking what we are teachable that’s true but I think we need to characterize further what kind of seeking what what does it look like yeah yeah highest priority seeking look at the metaphor again that he gives here if you will treasure my Commandments if you cry for discernment you lift your voice you’re shouting you say I want this if you seek her as silver and search for her as for Hidden Treasures this is like the enthusiastic diligent even desperate seeking after treasure God says you need to passionately cry for and pursue wisdom and when we see God’s wisdom with this attitude what will be the result according to the passage yeah you will gain the discernment that you’re looking for specifically because you will arrive at a certain place what will you discern that fear of the Lord we already saw it and it even says further there you will come to know him you will discover the knowledge of God and those things are connected when you know who God really is when you understand his character and what he’s done that causes you to fear Him and that’s how you’re going to start to gain the knowledge and there are practical results knowing god is the basis for an awful fear of him it’s the beginning of wisdom but it has practical implications what are the results of gaining this knowledge what’s one of them yeah you’ll understand righteousness and Justice you will just Justice you will discern the right way you will receive the blessing and preservation of God very many practical blessings to gaining the knowledge of God and thereby his wisdom Solomon identifies God himself as the source of all wisdom God’s very mouth is the source now if God’s mouth is the source of wisdom and if we want to be wise we must desperately seek God’s wisdom like a treasure what then practically must we do God’s mouth is a source of wisdom we’re to seek it like treasure so what’s that going to look like in our lives Edwin exactly we’re going to be desperately enthusiastically passionately paying attention to the word of God we’re going to diligently seek the scriptures now this is significant because I think we often don’t seek the scriptures and don’t diligently study it because of the difficulty involved it takes work to understand the sayings of Solomon or even the sayings of the scriptures as a whole and you have to sacrifice other Pursuits in order to do that but if one is desperate for wisdom if one sees the value of wisdom will he not make such sacrifices if you were told that a horde of silver or or gold was in a certain place and it was just waiting for someone to dig it up and claim it and it was not too far from you would you not work hard to obtain it wouldn’t you make the sacrifices so that you could go get that treasure I mean anybody can have it you could have it if you just worked take it God says that that is the way you want to treat This Book of Proverbs and the rest of his word knowing god is even more valuable than a pile of gold bars and acquiring a holy fear of him is more valuable than the finest articles of silver but do we believe this do our lives reflect this reality or do we think God is exaggerating a little bit or do we think I’ve already found a little bit of God’s golden wisdom I don’t need the rest I don’t need any more those are wrong thoughts they are not they’re not informed by what is true God’s word is true it is more viable than treasure the psalmist says the same thing more precious than honey more valuable than gold so let’s bring our lives in line with this truth we are to seek the script scriptures like treasure the wisdom of God is found in the scriptures because the scriptures are all about Christ remember what Colossians 2 1-3 says and we’ve looked at this before Paul writing for I want you to know how great a struggle I have on your behalf and those who are at laodicea and for all those who have not personally seen my face that their hearts may be encouraged having been knit together in love and attaining to all the wealth that comes from the full Assurance of understanding resulting in a true knowledge of God’s mystery that is Christ himself in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge Christ is the sum of God’s wisdom and the scriptures are all about Christ and of course the scriptures are going to be the source of Treasure of course the scriptures are more valuable than gold all Treasures of wisdom and knowledge are found in Christ and the mystery of Christ is revealed in the scriptures is the fullest expression of everything the Bible declares about God the fullest expression of God’s wisdom righteousness Holiness love you name it his life is the embodiment of every good and Wise Way and it is in direct contrast to the Natural inclinations of the Flesh and the wisdom of the world so let us find out more about our precious Christ let us seek wisdom like silver and gold and reap the benefits of doing so we will understand the right way we will gain a genuine fear of the Lord who will experience God’s blessed protection and provision and we can do this by God’s holy spirit so let’s do it and pray for God’s enabling in it did you have a comment Danny hmm yeah that’s a useful comment Danny that’s another reason why we stay away from the scriptures is because it’s painful for us not only does it take work but some of the things we read they um not what we’d like to hear or they make us feel very condemned and sometimes that’s good for us it’s necessary for us and sometimes it’s just because we misunderstand it that’s why it’s useful to gain the full ministry of the church to talk about the Bible with Believers to hear a taught from the pulpit of course studying it for ourselves should never be replaced but that’s one way that we can help overcome those difficulties one thing I also want to say though is as painful as bringing our lives in with the scriptures can be or exposing ourselves to the scriptures it’s always worth it because what’s at the very end gold or something more valuable than gold the treasures of wisdom and knowledge of Christ that’s always going to be worth whatever sacrifices reading or submitting to the scriptures will take other comments or questions Okay so we’ve seen the background and important introductory information in the Book of Proverbs let’s finish our agenda today by sampling one of the chapters of Proverbs to see just what kind of areas the wisdom of God covers this specific book of wisdom please turn your Bibles to proverbs 19.

this is Page 657 in your Pew Bibles we’re going to do a little activity and if you have your workbooks you can turn to page 66 where you’ll find Space to actually do this activity what we’re going to do I’m going to give you five minutes I want you to read through proverbs 19.

and I want you to write down the different topics or areas of life that come up and are addressed for example if you look at verse 1 and chapter 19 it says better is a poor man who walks in his Integrity then he was perverse in speech and is a fool what topic does this particular proverb address what’s one of the areas of life or human behavior that this proverb addresses hey Magda yeah it’s about talking and it makes an analogy it says you’re better off being poor than someone who has wretched speech you would be a fool in that case so this has to do with speech do the same thing as you look at the rest of proverbs you have space in your workbook so just write down the topics you don’t have to do it for each verse but just as you notice different topics just jot them down and we’ll come back after five minutes and we’ll see what just what kind of topics in this chapter Alone come up questions about what you’re going to do you can work with a partner sitting near you if that’s helpful to you but take five minutes and if you finish please look up and that way I’ll know you’re done okay let’s talk about the topics you didn’t finish going through the whole thing that’s okay will help each other fill it in what are some of the topics addressed in this chapter of proverbs what’s one yeah money wealth it’s also linked with generosity and friendship we see this in verse 4 verse 6 verse 7 and verse 17.

what else what else yeah Dwayne exactly family relationships um we see that in verse 13 14 18 and 26 both parenting and marriage we see family talked about what else Magda anger and rage definitely let’s see did I ever note this specific verses verse 11 and 19 talk about anger and also the king’s anger is mentioned in verse 12.

what else ejo lying that’s right especially lying in court being a false witness what else Danielle yeah wealth uh and poverty um yes work ethics laziness is mentioned twice verse 15 or verse 24 what else Judy uh justice yeah what is um what is just let’s see did I write down something specific for that um let’s see judgment is mentioned in verse 29.

yeah I think uh just behavior is mentioned some of the other ones but other things proper speech as we mentioned Hasty or ignorant actions man blaming God for his own folly um the benefits of God’s wisdom and his Commandments proper stations in life man’s plans discipline and reproof and then the ones we’ve already mentioned so even in just one chapter of proverbs we see a pretty broad array of gods or pretty broad array of applications for God’s wisdom and this is part of the sufficiency of scripture the Bible doesn’t address every specific situation in your life but it does give you the principles for all of them so that you can walk wisely and righteously no matter the situation second Peter 1 2-3 says um Peter is opening that second letter and he says Grace and peace he multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our lord seeing that his divine power has granted us everything pertaining to life and godliness through the true knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and excellence even without the Book of Proverbs the Bible gives so many principles that we could discern through a lot of life situations but the Proverbs make it even easier because they address so many of the topics of life and we see the sufficiency of scripture so we should pay attention even more so now to the wisdom of Proverbs and the wisdom of God’s word you saw that in the activity the little introduction that says some people dismiss the Bible as not being relevant or Proverbs is not being relevant but actually it’s intensely relevant it describes exactly what you and I deal with anger lying discipline making plans those types of things well as we come to the end of our lesson today let’s consider some application questions and the ones I’m going to display on the screen they’re partly based on what appears in the workbook but I’ve rewarded some of them first question if you are struggling to put to death a certain sin habit such as anger or lust how can Proverbs be helpful yeah the Proverbs will instruct you they talk about these things and um and sometimes at length what else is helpful about proverbs and dealing with particularly besetting sins yeah Judy yeah um this is along the lines which I mentioned but it motivates you to put the debt that’s in because you see the consequences of it you see the final results of it not just that it’s wrong and here’s why it’s wrong but here’s what it leads to just practically if you’re thinking of um a Sanctified reward for yourself you see that it’s it’s following to go on those ways along with those things we we can remember that just as parallelism is helpful so that you can remember the Proverbs we can memorize the Proverbs so that we can keep that wisdom ready in mind so that um for instance when it comes to lust and you’re tempted to lust then the proverb comes back into your mind about the adulterous woman which says smoother or sweeter than Honeys or speech smoother than oil are her lips but in the end she is as bitter as wormwood sharper than any double-edged sword to say there’s the wisdom of God I don’t want to be dealt wounds and even a death blow by pursuing this sin it’s a false promise that it’s offering out to me so memorizing Proverbs letting ourselves be instructed by the Proverbs and understanding the end of certain actions from Proverbs they’re all helpful another question since the Proverbs are largely not arranged topically how can you find Proverbs that deal with a particular topic yeah Steve yeah use the concordance that’s often included in your at the end of your Bible what else could you use word search engine from online especially on Bible Gateway or similar websites I probably even Google it and you’ll find it the same way but if you or I don’t know about Google but certainly if you go for Bible Gateway and you type in a topic like anger or laziness or just the word lazy you’ll often find things in their Proverbs that address those particular words hmm yeah I’m sorry right it’s it’s definitely um worth emphasizing the point that you’re just mentioning bill which is though the digital age gives us a lot of ability to kind of uh search and just select a small section of scripture and read it and gain benefit from it we’ve got to remember that the Bible is written in context and it was meant for books to be read to be read from beginning to end so that you can understand the flow of the argument so you can understand how the ideas relate to what’s in their context so we never want to replace simple reading and our own memory in studying the scripture or gaining benefit from it but in terms of finding things that we’re not familiar with certainly we can use digital tools with the concordances that are in our Bibles another question what are some sources of so-called wisdom in the world that we as Christians can pay attention to more than or in place of the Bible what’s the source of competing wisdom a magnet yeah social media now what our peers are saying what certain famous or respected people are saying the wisdom of crowds what else George yeah psychology we could say science in general but particularly when it comes to behavior psychology and Psychiatry they have a lot of things to say yeah Craig yeah education Academia but also other forms of public education they have wisdom that they offer what else I think we’ve hit a lot of the major ones philosophy science psychology music the things that come in the lyrics that we listen to they are offering wisdom or what appears to be wisdom literature various works of literature both ancient and modern self-help teachers and books and just various people many people and organizations in our world they Proclaim that they have valuable knowledge they have wisdom even some kind of Secret for understanding or dealing with life problems such as philosophical inquiry these are just some of the ideas that are promoted as wisdom philosophical inquiry man’s biological need for sex positive thinking the power of positive thinking love languages the Myers-Briggs personality test chemical imbalances in the brain man’s animalistic origin using I feel statements versus you are statements so that people aren’t offended uh venting that’s it’s good to get that off your chest and much more they give us the world and its various Outlets of wisdom they give us these ideas now some of these ideas they sound very wise they perhaps even sound Godly but how can we tell the difference between what is truly wisdom and what only has the appearance of wisdom the word of God right the word of God we have to pay attention to the scriptures because it’s the only reliable source of wisdom because it comes from God and when we apply these to some of the popular ideas of our day even some of the popular ideas among Christians the the results that can be startling for instance there is nothing in the scriptures about love languages yes somehow that idea became very popular among Christians as if if you didn’t know your spouse’s specific love language then your marriage is hopeless the Bible doesn’t say anything about that someone’s offering a key as if the Bible missed out on some wisdom nor is there anything in the scripture about personality tests yet we sometimes justify our justify our behavior in spite of what the Bible commands us to do in the light of the results of such tests oh I just have the this certain personality it’s just the way I am I found it from this test what’s the Bible say nor does the Bible support something like venting I mean we often say oh you know I just got events but venting usually is simply the unleashing of our anger by complaining about someone or something to other people and the Bible has a lot to say about complaining most of it most of the complaining of the Bible identifies as unrighteous we’ve identified what righteous complaint looks like in a previous lesson so don’t misunderstand me I’m not saying that all the world’s ideas are evil or if it’s outside of the Bible then it has no value but we need to recognize the frailty the weakness of human wisdom and the superiority of God’s word the fear of the Lord as we saw is the beginning of wisdom the world as a whole does not fear the lord so we should expect that many if not most of their ideas are going to be off base because they’re missing one of the most fundamental aspects of wisdom so let’s pay attention to the word of God give it Priority give it more value than we do the so-called Insight of the world and the final question is not one for us to answer together it’s just for one for you to consider for yourself do you seek God’s wisdom like silver and gold do you see it as treasure worthy to be passionately pursued arduously pursued worthy to have sacrifices made so that you can obtain it I don’t know the answer to that but the spirit using the scripture can show you the answer to that as you consider it final comments or questions yes Steve it’s like if you didn’t live hmm without without them you know you know good and they were based on difficult wisdom but it’s a shame that well if you don’t believe you know you know one children or they could they get pushed out to our children parents should really you know and instilling in the biblical principles because they’re the Next Generation and how they possibly and be yeah there’s some valuable comments you just made Steve um just try and summarize it briefly but yeah you’re right there’s a hubris among uh the world especially Academia or those considered to be educated and intelligent and they say oh we were completely stupid in the past like the world was stupid people didn’t understand things at all but now we do but of course the irony and all that is that that’s what everybody has said up to their present day like oh the past generation that there’s the golden age thing too but like they didn’t understand but now we understand I mean you’ve probably experienced this personally right just a couple of years ago in your own life you might be like man I didn’t understand anything but now I do now I can really understand things but then just wait a little bit longer and you’ll notice that there’s a lot that you still don’t understand but you’re right that’s what people do as a whole and that and they passionately um push forward their way of thinking they say everyone’s got to know this your children have got to know this you’ve got to know this you’ve got to adopt this and if you don’t then you’re a fool and this ties in with everything that the scripture says about foolishness of wisdom they think that the word of God and its principles are foolish and they have the true wisdom God says no actually it’s the opposite it’s a good comment Steve other comments or questions hmm yeah uh I’ll repeat your comment that when somebody actually walks according to God’s wisdom they they stand out and even if you don’t know if that person’s a Christian you can recognize when they do things that are wise according to God’s word because it’s so different and they’re reaping oftentimes they’re reaping the benefits of that but that’s not what most people do in the world um this is going to tie in a little bit of what we’re going to talk about later in the sermon but uh we really need to appreciate the difference that God wants to put between the people who follow him and know his wisdom and the people who don’t follow him there should be a visible difference there should be a discernible difference in how they act but too often we’re trying to blend with the world we say oh we’re not that different we’re not that weird we think just like you guys but God says no the point is you’re not supposed to think like them we could say more but we need to close next week we’re going to be looking at tragic development in the narrative the scriptures we’re going to be looking at the division of the Kingdom under Solomon’s immediate Heir how Solomon turned from wisdom in the later part of his life and so did his son when his son took the throne I didn’t mention this yet but our we have a new memory verse for the second part of the quarter First Chronicles 29 10-11 this has to do with the preparation for the temple David uh speaking here therefore David blessed the Lord before all the assembly and David said blessed are you Lord God of Israel Our Father forever and ever yo yours oh Lord is the greatness the power and the glory the Victory and the Majesty for all that is in heaven and in Earth is yours yours is the kingdom O Lord and you are exalted as head over all let’s pray father you are exalted you have the true wisdom father and we feel such pressure to conform to the world’s wisdom to adopt the world’s wisdom to show that we’re not that weird we’re not that different but but Lord your wisdom is so Superior and it will cause us to stand out there are so many benefits to following your wisdom so help us to believe that to seek it like Treasures so we can know it and then act on it father by your spirit I pray that you enable it enable the people here listening to do it we might obtain the reward in Jesus name amen

May 29, 2016
Obedience is Paramount

In this Mother’s Day sermon, Pastor Babij examines a section of Proverbs dealing with the value of God’s wisdom and the need of parents to inculcate wisdom in their children. Pastor Babij explains that each person must be careful to: keep watch on wisdom so that it does not fade, secure wisdom so that it is not lost or stolen, remember wisdom so that it remains a faithful companion.

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let’s take our Bibles this morning and turn to proverbs we’re going to look at proverbs this morning proverbs chapter 6 the great wisdom book of the Old Testament proverbs chapter 6 specifically we’re going to be looking at verses 20 through 23 and as you’re turning the ls let’s have a word for let’s pray father this morning as we look at your word and thank you that you sent your son into this world he took care of everything so people can genuinely be forgiven of their sins have their sins washed away for those who trust in the lord jesus christ as their one and only Lord and Savior and those who do not trust in anything else for their salvation Lord that you provided your Holy Spirit to lead us and guide us in the truth and Lord you you in your word give us wisdom so we can know how to live life in a way that honors you and Lord you’ve been giving us a book called proverbs that tells us and gives us the wisdom that comes from above and I pray Lord as we look at this book this morning that we be able to see how wise you are and how important it is for moms and dads to raise children away from their bent to be naive and to be foolish and to be rebellious to be to be Lord someone who is wise and knows how to live I pray that you would help us to do by your word I pray in Christ’s name Amen okay proverbs chapter 6 this whole chapter really is referring to really temptations towards wickedness avoiding actually temptations towards wickedness and this particular chapter is all about parental counsel parents that give counsel to their children now before the last warning of the scripture that came before that this is now leads into an all-important exhortation that is put before the student or the learner and the exhortation comes forth in the form of a call and also the consequences if the call is not heated now I want you to think this morning about a survival kit your survival kit in your survival kit you need certain basic gear and you need that gear in order to get along every day in your survival kit you’ll have a map in a compass you’ll have a flashlight and you’ll have a sword now you’re going to be dropped off in a place you’ve never been before alone you don’t know the obstacles that are going to be before you nor the character of the people that you’ll meet you don’t know if around the bend there will be a mountain or a valley a friend or an enemy you don’t know that but a wise person has an advantage in other words we have been dropped off in this world we have to navigate this world and we don’t know in this world all the obstacles that are going to be before us we don’t always know the character of the people that were going to meet we don’t know at the next bend if there’s going to be a mountain to climb or if there’s going to be a valley to be stuck in or if we’re going to meet a friend that will help us or an enemy that will be against us what a wise person again has an advantage they have been well taught and trained in the Word of God their eyes are king their ears are attentive their heart is filled with the fear and the reverence of God and they’re ready to step out on their own and live in this world with some success because they’re wise now let’s just say that you’re the wise one because you have been listening to wise tutors you have been obeying you have been growing in the wisdom of God’s Word you have been putting it into practice you have been thinking about it now you’re going off on your own and you’re departing from your home with a well supplied survival kit everything contained in it is for surviving anything that comes your way and the bottom line is to continue to obey what you have already learned so then the excitation this morning really would be to continue on the path of obedience and of course specifically the context is speaking to young adults who leave home obedience will be paramount for their service or survival especially when they leave out from among their own parents and the people in the church that they grew up with and they’re going out into the world so there’s a need for continual reminding because the temptations of life always want to appeal to your remaining corruption they want to cause you to give up the standard of righteousness that you were taught from the Word of God to loosen your grip around what is wise to give it up for something that’s foolish to give in to your own lust in your own passions there’s always temptations that will want to bring you a way that you’ve not been if you’ve been walking in righteousness you will start to hear other voices and remember the voice of folly will cry aloud for your attention you’re always listening to someone either yourself which is heavily influenced by the flesh with its passions and desires you will listen to the world and it’s system which is ungodly and gives an ungodly influence or manipulated by the master deceiver Satan himself or you’ll continue in obedience to listen to wisdom to take your example from wise people who taught you to fear and obey the Lord so really that’s the context of this particular chapter it is the parents that have taught the children the wisdom of God’s Word and now they are now going off they’re starting to break loose from their parents and they’re going to go on their own so this morning I would like to show you from the Word of God the call to obedience brings certain things with it and the first thing is that the call to obedience is to keep watch on the wisdom that you were taught if you were taught wisdom from the Word of God so that it does not fade from your sight all right hold on to the wisdom so it doesn’t fade from your sight of course this particular chapter applies to all of us and if you notice the first verse in Proverbs chapter 6 verse number 20 it says this my son observed the commandment of your father and do not forsake the teaching of your mother now that passage is addressed to wise parents making the instruction they had given their children now the very foundation of what their go they’re going to live once they leave the home in other words they gave the priority of God’s Word to their children maybe that’s the greatest that is the greatest gift that you can give your children the wisdom to live in this world see nothing is more important than teaching children about life from God’s perspective there’s nothing more important than that frees the reason why is because they’re getting their perspective from everywhere else but the Lord people in the church should be getting it from the Word of God and of course God’s perspective means that you’ll be teaching your kids the realities and the consequences of wisdom and folly you’ll be teaching your children the reality is reality is and consequences of righteousness and wickedness and that you’ll be teaching your children the realities and consequences of truth and error in fact God considers godly instruction to be a greater value than anything else parents can give their young adults when they leave home if you’ve been doing that all along they have something to take with that if parents don’t teach their children faith and obedience it could cost them his or her life now if you take your Bibles for a minute turn to chapter one back to chapter one of Proverbs and I want you to notice something because he’s not saying here here my son as he did in chapter one verse number 8 see the Sun in other words already received the call to hear it says in chapter 1 verse 8 here my son your father’s instruction so see here it’s an imperative in chapter 6 that the Sun put a lot of effort into hearing with attention and interest what his wise father and wise mother was teaching him about God and God’s perspective on life and he they taught that so he could understand and then practice the truth so in other words this was no dull hearing this is a child that actually grasp the truth actually wanted the truth it actually means there was a keen attentive hearing on the part of the student on the part of the child that they were taking it in like a sponge maybe they didn’t understand everything all at once but they were taking it in and they were listening to it now we get the chapter 6 and verse number 20 and this is how it says it it doesn’t say now here my son your father’s instruction it says my son observed the commandments of your father in other words here the imperative to observe the expression is more than just looking at it or hearing it it means that the truth that you learned can guard you it can keep you from harm it is in other words a settled command already in the mind and the heart of the child so the Word of God is really saying to the young person keep it close to you keep the wisdom that you learn from the Word of God and from your wise parents keep it close to you so it doesn’t get lost so it doesn’t get stolen because of its of the greatest it’s it’s greater than anything else it’s of higher value and more delicate nature than anything else of course what was the command what did the command include that the father was supposed to teach well the instruction that he was supposed to teach was the Torah a right in the Old Testament that means he was to teach the Mosaic law all right in other words how to live before the eyes of the Lord he was to give instruction about the human and the divine wisdom that a person would need to live skillfully in this world he was to be taught the prophetic teaching of the coming Messiah so he would know that when he left God had a hope and a future for his people and then also he would be taught the legal directives on what to do and what not to do and then he would be given the law of burnt offering and that would be how do you approach God in the right way how do you approach God as a sinner so you don’t get consumed by God but you can actually come into his presence and be forgiven by him and have a relationship with them so they were taught all those things in other words they were taught the whole counsel of God all of Scripture which contained all the necessary instructions for a wise and a godly life so here he seems to be speaking to a son who has been fully trained reminding him about what he learned and and from whom he learned it there is nothing new here’s just another reminder of remember to listen to the right voices listen to the voice of wisdom and don’t forget it in other words the passage that Duane read this morning in the Word of God where Paul reminded young a young pastor named Timothy in the Epistle of second Timothy chapter 3 verses 13 through 15 where he says but evil men and imposters will proceed from bad to worse deceiving and being deceived you however continued in the things you have learned and become convinced of and then he says this knowing whom you have learned them all right and that from a child you have known the sacred writings which are able to give you wisdom that leads to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus where did Timothy learn the sacred writing that he learned them from famous people with great intellectual minds and many degrees no you learned them well he learned that from his grandmother and from his mother and as the Bible tells us that in 2nd Timothy 15 it’s a try a mindful of the sincere faith it within you which was first that first welt in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and I am sure that it is in you as well in other words that what they learned is inside of them it’s it’s embedded in their mind and in their heart it is there for keeps that’s the power of wisdom and every child needs it before they go into this world because there are too many temptations out there and they’re not getting both sides of the story they’re just getting one side of the sword so remember realize the prominent role both parents play in the shaping of character in their children in convincing that by not only their words but their life that the scripture is true and the scripture can be relied upon that the scripture is sufficient for giving us everything we need for life and godliness everything is sound in the word of God so if you notice back right there in Proverbs there’s an exhortation that is giving not to abandon what they learned and notice what it says here it says do not forsake your mother’s teaching alright in other words don’t lay it aside don’t reject it don’t cast it off don’t let it live follow all right where the gays or it gets covered with garbage and junk where it can’t be rep rescued again now why is that said because the wise sages instructions were filled with god-fearing observations of how life under divine control really works how it really looks see the preparation given by the wise parent is not to be laid aside when leaving the home this means that the parents instructions will be the foundation in which they will build a superstructure of knowledge from that day forward if it is cast off everything crumbles so this is always the temptation for young people to think that they have outgrown the home to think that they have outgrown the church’s truth that is the word of God that they were taught while they were growing up here the truth is driven home that you really get to put all the instruction into practice once you do leave the home what you do leave the home you will pretty much know quickly what’s in that survival kit your map and compass is the guidance that was you from the word of wisdom your flashlight is the illumination of the Word of God upon what is true and what is false and the sword is the protection that the Word of God gives you to be able to resist temptation to be able to resist the evil one so young people someday someone some thing may entice you in tempt you to cast off biblical teaching for something you think at the moment more practical or more rational or maybe just flesh appealing more flush appealing exciting if you do it will reveal a deeper spiritual problem it will show your affections have moved in another direction away from the Lord to another objects of course the Bible calls that idolatry some idolatry that will come into your life I say this don’t give in to those temptations hold fast to the faith the body of doctrine that you have learned that has been delivered to the church seek godly counsel to get your affections back on the Lord and your mind and hard back into the Word of God and why is that because wisdom lived out has a certain Beauty to it if you look back at chapter 1 again and if you notice verse number 8 and 9 that there’s a crown that comes with living wisely it was bruce bochy who said of this passage of Scripture well it says that the skill of living out your life beautifully so it demonstrates a skill or beauty about it that people can actually see look at verse number 8 of chapter 1 here my son your father’s instructions and do not forsake your mother’s teaching verse 9 indeed they are graceful wreaths to your head and adornment about your neck so in other words Solomon wrote the is this book so that when you live out your life it could have actual Beauty to it purpose to it meaning to it that fearing God and acting upon parental instruction has an eye-catching beauty about it in the world in the place that you’re going to go and obedience is beautiful and makes a person delightfully stand out amongst those around them there’s nothing like a young person who has wisdom there’s nothing like a young person it knows when to say no and believe it or not you’ll be saying no most of your life and not yes very few times especially when it comes to temptation say no a lot but that’s all right the Bible says let your yes be yes and your no be no there’s no gray area when it comes to say no dissent and no to temptation see but a wise person knows why because they thought about it they said they thought that in my mind if I do this then this is going to happen they thought the beginning of the middle in the end before they even said yes or no and they decided after concluding the end results that I’ll not do this because it’s not the wise thing to this it’s not what I learned from my parents not what I learned from the Word of God it is not what I learned so therefore I’m not going so see the call to obedience is first a call not to let the wisdom of God’s Word to fade out of your sight you want to keep it in your site a second thing we find in this passage of scripture that in chapter 6 is the call to obedience is to secure the wisdom that you were taught so that it is not lost or stolen and if you notice in verse 21 of chapter 6 it says this bind them continually on your heart hi them around your neck now what is just what is it talking about they’re talking about wisdom it’s talking about the truth in God’s Word what are you supposed to do with it it says buying them continually don’t let them go by the wayside and then tie them so they don’t come loose so they don’t get jolted out of your mind and your heart see the heart is the response or II of the teaching so we have another imperative here to bind something bind it so it does not jar loose so that wisdom is the guide to offering the whole being up to righteous thinking and righteous living so here it’s different than when it was first mentioned in proverbs chapter three proverbs chapter 3 says it like this bind them around your neck and then write them on the tablet of your heart but now it’s already written there it’s already been placed around the person’s neck so now as they leave out don’t let it jar loose so proverbs chapter 6 verse 21 the wise person is ordered to bind them to their to their heart continually and tie it around their neck continually so they are together so there are several things that really come to mind when we think about this picture of binding something around ones neck the first would be that a human’s a human being really their prompt human beings are prone to going their own way without some guidance and then also they are prone to wandering secondly they are prone to lose things right and the scriptures giving us a picture that listen what you were taught don’t lose it don’t give it away don’t lay it aside this is not lip service to the teachers instructions but really a hearty agreement and a real practical continual commitment by the student to obey what they already know is true today to obey what they already know is right so the teachers instructions in other words are so embedded in the heart of the young people that it influences every choice they make every movement they have in this life that’s the power of the word of God the Word of God once it is in you once it is on your heart and coupled with the desire to want to obey it can direct you and keep you from sin so the teachings of the parents are analogous to the commands of Moses actually they are Apple tepeyac that means they’re able to ward off evil they are able to safeguard against evil so they’re teaching is to be concrete tized in the inner man like concrete hardens you know those who work with concrete know that concrete poured for sidewalks and steps actually takes about twenty eight days to cure completely become hard then it becomes of course hearts heart of steel making it very difficult to break make it very difficult to come apart so it is saying here let the teaching of wisdom be cemented to your hearts and let it cure until it becomes so much a part of you it cannot be broken it cannot be stolen it cannot be easily laid aside that’s what he says to those who are young who have been taught and now they’re leaving and they’re going off and they need this survival kit more than anything else in the world so the wise father and the mothers teachings are personified as a guide as a guardian and of course next in our passage as a companion I want you to notice in verse 22 the third thing that goes with the call of obedience is not to forget the comprehensive faithfulness of wisdom so that it will remain a close contain yin to you so the Bible asking us to think about wisdom as a companion someone who is alongside of you right someone wherever you go it goes with you and so there’s about three regular movements of life that the Bible mentions right here that none of us can get away with or none of us nuts none of us and get away from because we all are involved with these movements and here’s the first movement the movement in verse 22 of roaming all right in other words it says when you walk about they will guide you when you’re roaming about when you’re traveling around the wisdom will lead you in other words when you make your way from place to place and transfer a traverse through this strange world wisdom will lead you it will be your map and your compass it will help you navigate through the most difficult obstacles and circumstances all of us are going to be roaming we’re going to be roaming from home or to work from home to school from visiting people from going places from traveling we’re going to be roaming and as we roam through this world there’s a companion that goes along with you and that companion is the wisdom that God’s taught from the Word of God it will actually guide you the Bible set a second thing is this we all are going to be sleeping right we’re going to go to sleep every day we need sleep sleep has certain benefits to it but I want you to notice the benefit of being wise what it does when you sleep it says in verse 22 it says when you sleep they will watch over you who will watch over you they will not only the wisdom that you were taught but also the ones who taught the wisdom and the God who gave the wisdom see in other words when you lie down wisdom will protect you it will be a faithful mate at your side it will be a friend and a helper to you in other words wisdom will always be there it it will always be faithful it’s hu that will be on paper you will not it will never be wisdom that on paper always be us that’s see wisdom will be in your heart in your mind as a referee of what is true and what is false what is God’s ways and what are the other ways that lead to trouble into destruction so even when you are sleeping it will be in your mind it will be in your heart it will give you I believe restful sleep a person who is wise is prone to sleep with rest because they’ve made wise decisions they thought about the decision they said no to some of those decisions which protected them from evil which protects them from walking or stepping into temptation the truth doesn’t change at all wisdom doesn’t change circumstances may change people may change but the truth of god’s word abides forever it doesn’t change at all it’s always consistent and so therefore because it’s consistent it can be trusted so when you’re roaming it will guide you when you’re sleeping it will watch over you and then one other thing in verse 22 it says awake when you’re awake it will talk to you that’s amazing when you when you awake wisdom will advise you don’t we need other people to talk to us about what we’re doing well you know what there’s a certain strength and power to wisdom that when you wake up you’ll be hearing the speech of wisdom can meet being communicate you just like when you when you’re learning the word of god you’re you’re thinking about you’re meditating on the Word of God and it talks to you it tells you what is good and holy and right it tells you which way not to go it tells you the things that please God it talks to you know we need to not only allowed wisdom to talk to us we need to talk to ourselves soon because we need to be telling ourselves or learning with the Bible’s teaching us so in other words the wisdom will when you awake it will advise you and biblical wisdom is not like a dream in which you cannot recall it is a strong consistent voice that continually remind you of what is holy good and right and believe me of conscience that has been conditioned by the Word of God is a loud voice and either you’re going to say no to that boy so you’re gonna say yes to that voice when you step out and you meet people who want you to want to tempt you away from what you already know is right and holy and good and what will please your parents and what of course will please the Lord see that’s what wisdom is keep it close to keep it like a close companion for you and if you do it will guide you and watch over you and it will talk to you because it has something to say it has content to it it has extreme amount of skill to it to be able to give you the ability to slice through all the garbage that you’re going to receive in this world by way of literature and speech and be able to cause you to know what is true what is not so the wise father and the wise mothers teaching are personified as a guide as a guardian as a companion but next is objectified as a lamp and a way and i want you to notice in verse 23 of Proverbs because the call to obedience here is to use wisdom to illumine the difficult path of life so that while passing through the thorny periods of life you will gain wisdom and learn from it and not quit so it says in verse 23 for the commandment is a lamp and the teaching is light and reproofs for Discipline are the way of life now several things going on here in this passage first of all it tells us here that listen the commandment is a lamp that means the essential nature of what has been taught by the parents by way of command by way of imperatives will illumine your surroundings no I guess today instead of going to the store and buying a you don’t buy a 60-watt light bulb anything you have to say can I have a bulb that has 800 lumens see the language they change the language on it confuses us right but you know what maybe a looming says it better than 60 watts 800 lumen hope it’s about a 60 watt hole right because it tells us that if I go up to a thousand lumens I know the bulb is going to be brighter if I go below eight hundred or a thousand I know it’s going to be less from the Bible is saying here the commandment has lumens to it that is gives you the ability to know what’s going on around you that illuminates the darkness that shows you where the potholes are the obstacles are the people who the people are that you are coming into your life and to be able to give you the ability to discern that it’s like what is written in Psalm 19 verse 8 the precepts of the Lord are right rejoicing the heart the commandment of the Lord is pure enlightening the eyes see there’s a certain amount of light or lumens that come with a lamp but the Bible also says this it says for the commandment is a lamp and teaching is light to the comparison of the wise parent teaching to a lamp or giving light is something that cannot be ignored in Scripture because it’s all over the place for example in proverbs 13 verse number 9 it says this the light of the righteous rejoice and the lamp of the wicked go out so there’s a certain amount of light that comes with a righteous life but for someone who lives in wickedness their life just hits darker and darker till they have no light at all and then in psalm 119 in verse number 105 the word is a lamp to my feet and a what-a-light to my tack so she lights is also used in the Old Testament as a figure of denoting the salvation bestowed by God upon his children for it says this in Isaiah 43 verse 30 send out your light and your truth let them leave me let them bring me to your holy hill and to your dwelling places again this is the same thing that Paul told Timothy listen the Word of God will lead you to salvation because why it’s a lamp and it’s light it cannot lie to you it must tell you the truth it must illumine the way it must show you the dangers in your life and then it says this in verse 23 it is the way of life the way of life now if you read on I want you to notice something in chapter 6 and verse number 24 it says this it gives some practical advice to hear the young man the young person it says in verse number 24 all that what is it going to do where’s 24 to keep you from the evil woman from the smooth tongue of the adulteress do not desire her beauty in your heart nor let her capture you with her eyelids for on account of a harlot one is reduced to a loaf of bread and an adulterous hunts for the precious life can a man take fire in his bosom and his clothes not be burned or can a man walk on hot coals and his feet not be skorts so is the one who goes into his neighbor’s wife whoever touches her will not go unpunished in other words the Bible saying listen this kind of wisdom will keep you from evil will keep you from not only evil circumstances but from evil people that want to lure you away from the way of life that is led by lit by a lamp and led by a light that illumines your path so you can know where you’re walking next that if there’s an obstacle you’ll know how to go around it if you have to or you know how to hurtle it whatever you need to do that’s what the Word of God that’s what wisdom will do it will be able it is able to do that and then it also says this in verse number 23 it says not only for the commandment is a lamp and the teaching is light it says and reproofs and discipline are the way of life recruits and discipline are the way of life now in the midst of walking through this world there are going to be something foot certain things that are hard in fact it talks about recruits in discipline in a plural way that proverbs 10 verse 17 says he is on the path of life who heeds instruction but he hurt sakes reproofs goes astray that along the way in other words are going to have to be reprimanded why usually those who are wiser than you and your new some times need to be told that you’re wrong when you’re going the wrong way it also tells us in Proverbs a man who hardens his neck after much reproved well sudden will suddenly be broken beyond remedy in other words reproof has a certain way to teach us that no other way can teach us the hard road is going to teach us more than the easier just like the rod applied to the backside of a child is going to teach them more at least that certain point in their life then words will write in fact the rod will drive away rebellion so the child remains obedient so the teaching of wisdom really will be a reliable guide a watchful guard an agreeable companion if you follow them you will kept from not only immoral and evil circumstances but immoral and evil people because you’ll know how to steal so steer clear of them and you know are the most basic responsibilities of parents is to teach a child to obey their voice that has to start real real young teach em to listen to your voice a child knows when you’re fooling around with your voice a child knows when you mean it a child knows when you really mean business just by the way you use your voice but if a child no matter which way you use your voice never listens to you that child is a rebellious child and that child needs to be discipline that child needs reproof and of course when they’re young the Bible teaches us that we are to apply of course corporal punishment to their backside I know that’s not popular today I know that’s not something that many people do because they think they’re wiser than God but it says he who withholds his rod hates his son and he who loves him disciplines him diligently that when the rod is applied at a young age to a young child it is driving away rebellion from their heart so that that child obeys the voice of their parents and so that discipline becomes less and less and less as the child listens more and more and more the parents are afraid to reprimand and discipline their children today so they go to the world for wisdom and what does the world system tell them it tells them we have drugs that will take care of your child’s behavior today drugs have replaced discipline see the hard issues and the rebellion and the folly and the ignorance is never dealt with because they believed that their child is misbehaving because behaving just because of a behavioral problem that can be solved by giving him or her a drug if the child is misbehaving parents are in fact encouraged today to give their children drugs even by the administration’s that have authority over your children drugs like ritalin a psychostimulant and ensena me type of drug that suppresses behavior as they say it stimulates the central nervous system and and is used to lift the mood or control the appetite well when I was a kid it was called the drug is called uppers but i guess the children in children it kind of does the opposite in a compton down that’s called downer i put i really put a big question mark on the modern clinical excuses for child’s we’re building a wide trial won’t listen or wild child won’t sit still when they can sit still for two hours instead of a video game and yet they can’t sit 10 minutes in front of right and good instruction right why the reason why because they don’t watch it all right you know what that’s called rebellion and rebellion has to be dealt with so i have a big question about that in fact parents are being told that their children are have affliction such as a DD attention deficit disorder or ADHD attention deficit hyperactivity disorder or APD antisocial personality disorder or odg you get my point that there’s there’s a term for everything that you have you listened to a commercial they say oh have you had these symptoms as these symptoms when you raise your arm doesn’t your shoulder hurt now goes well you need this drug go get your stuff the problem is that psychosomatic problems cannot be diagnosed with any kind of test they’re just behavior so all these really describe a rebellious sent selfish defiant child does not want to listen to the voice of his parents teachers or authority figures but do they want to do what they want and the real sinful conduct is never driven from them but only masked by drugs so that means when they come into this world according to the Word of God they are already foolish they all already naive and they already have the potential to be Stoppers and they are not going to become wise unless they are talk with them you cannot get wisdom from any other in any other way but to be taught it it must be taught by the parents it must be taught from the Word of God and it must be must be spoken and lived before children so see parents who have this kind of view of life alright who want to raise their children why do what you want to raise your children in with wisdom because you want to drive as far away from them than being naive as you can you want to drive as far away from them then being rebellious as you can or being foolish to foolishness that’s in their hard drive it from then so they are why so they know what they ought to do when they go into the world so from our passage of Scripture obedience is key to continual growth in wisdom and godliness in other words keep yourselves well taught and trained keep your eyes king keep your ears attentive keep your heart filled with the fear and the reverence of the Lord and then you will keep a well supplied survival kit and remain armed to deal with anything that may come at you on this side eternity as you live your life the map and compass is wisdom from the Word of God and from your wives and godly Guardians wisdom that will let you know where you’re at how far you have come and if you are heading in the right direction and then a flashlight is wisdom the wisdom of the Word of God that sheds light on different trails so that you can stay on the right trail and the one that honors the Lord and is what the one who realizes how to honor their Lord and their wives teachers and then the sword is the wisdom that will give you strength fight against the evil ideologies and the evil people who can and will lead you astray if you let them that’s their home motive is to lead you astray to get disciples for themselves and the thing that will protect you from all of that is wisdom that comes from above to the Word of God through the teaching of your pastors teachers initial teachers parents love God’s words into your mind and into your heart until you get it until it’s stuck there till it’s cut it’s like hard concrete that you cannot lose and that when you roam about it’s going to be your guide when you go to sleep it’s going to give you rest and when you wake up it’s going to talk to you with a louder voice than anyone else and that’s going to be the key to making it through this life to the end in a way that honors top honors your teachers and gives you a life that looks beautiful before other people and I believe that’s what everybody but you got to put the working you got to put the effort in that’s God sanctify his children sets them apart what God is working in you have to work out all right so the cooperation with God’s doing in your life and work it out so continual obedience that the truth of God’s Word is paramax for survival let’s pray lord thank you again for the word of God it is Lord truly a lamp that illumines our path it is truly a light that shines bright before us to let us know what troubles ahead it is the very thing that we need Lord that without it we just stumble and trip and fall all for our life so I pray Lord today not with all those who hear but for the young people especially the Lord the young people that are now in trade school or college are on their own I pray Lord Jesus they would always remember if they were given godly parents if they were given parents were really truly saved and cared about the Word of God I lived it before them that they would not forget that that Lord they too would have a desire in their heart that someday when they have children they’re going to be a serious about it and maybe more serious and their parents or and Lord if you didn’t grant that to everyone to have wives and godly parents so I pray Lord it you still grant salvation to all who come to Jesus Christ to be saved and so I pray for those Lord that they could be the first generation of not only having treasuring wisdom in their own heart but they too would pick a spouse that is already living for you in loves you and that they would want to raise their children as first generation Chris in this world wisely so I pray you would give them the boldest say they need lord give them what the strength that they need to do that in this world because I know Lord they’re swimming upstream and it’s hard but I I know Lord you give us the strength to be able to carry out everything you tell us in the word of god and I pray as you as we put it into practice lord please raise up keep-keep of godly generation in these days that know how to live wise and I prayed this in your precious name amen let’s stand together

May 8, 2016
The Rescuing Nature of Wisdom

In this sermon, Pastor Babij explains how the wisdom of God’s Word has a practically rescuing aspect to it. In particular, the Bible warns against adopting the way of and becoming the prey of wicked men and wicked women, especially when it comes to sexual immorality. Pastor Babij explores Proverbs 2:10-22 as a sobering warning against pornography, marital estrangement, and adultery.

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okay this morning let’s take our Bibles and we’re going to turn to um Proverbs this morning I’m going to step out of Mark this week and look to Proverbs chapter 2.

and uh look at what is being taught here for all of us um to glean concerning the wisdom of God and so that’s what we want to look at today and I want to just uh focus in on the rescuing nature of wisdom let’s pray Lord this morning I just ask you Lord that you would enable me and help me to preach your word I prayed that you would impress it upon our hearts so Lord we would take Serious the epithy sayings of Proverbs that it would prod our mind and thinking to consider the beginning the middle and the end of a matter so Lord we can avoid evil and we can avoid trouble just by putting these things into practice enable us Lord to be rescued Often by wisdom as we think through things more thoroughly before we Act and I pray you enable us to do that in the power of your spirit I pray this amen so this morning we want to look at chapter two I’m going to look at verses 10.

through verse number 22 and then of course some other ones I will pick up also in chapter five but several weeks ago um when I was in I think it was Father’s Day I gave a message on the voice of wisdom that message ended with an encouragement concerning the fruit and the reward or pres of pursuing Godly wisdom and that is a person who is diligent and pursuing Godly wisdom actually uh we’ll know at three things they’ll know the source of wisdom uh where wisdom actually real wisdom actually comes from uh they will also know two other things about wisdom the path and value of wisdom and then they will know the rescuing nature of wisdom so um considering the first one that I ended with last time was that they will know this people will know the source of wisdom several things come into play when we think of that in verse number five of chapter two it says uh they will know the discern they will have discernment then you will discern the fear of the Lord which of course is the source of wisdom and then um that means they will be able to discern God’s way and remember that the basic meaning of discern uh is to separate and divide in order to choose the right way and to spurn every other evil way it is not merely used in a concrete way to analyze but also in a practical way to know by experience matter of fact I can know something by experience without ever experiencing it wisdom is able to give us that and that’s what really we really want to see in scripture and then of course it will also give us Discovery in verse number five and discover the knowledge of God so see both of these things go together to be able to discern the Lord and to discover the knowledge of God and what do we discuss cover concerning the knowledge of God verse number six that he gives it for the Lord gives wisdom from his mouth comes knowledge and understanding if we want real wisdom it’s got to come from the Lord the emphasis uh In this passage is found in the gift of wisdom uh loyal followers Remain the recipients of divine wisdom of course it’s never known to those who uh are fools and hate knowledge or to the naive who love Simplicity or to the scoffers uh because they Delight themselves in scoffing they’ll never know this kind of wisdom because they don’t seek after that they seek after something else so the search for wisdom brings one into a right relationship with God that’s where it actually leads to and according to Richard Clifford uh he said that the search does not end with the Seeker grasping it that’s just wisdom but in Yahweh bestowing it uh knowing the one who gives it so it comes from God and then in verse number seven uh we also discover that he stores it up for the upright in verse seven he stores up sound wisdom for the upright and if you notice the words uh or the phrase the sound wisdom this wisdoms Effectiveness in getting results such as right conduct the knowledge that leads to knowing God leads to doing what is right in other words it leads people to develop Integrity in life in fact that’s what it says in verse number seven he Shields those who walk it says invert and he Shields those who walk in it are in Integrity that here we have Divine enablement for walking that means the person who walks in the wisdom of God gives uh themselves to God in a way that enables them to walk in what God asks them to walk in it gives them the power to walk in it and then we notice also we discover verse verse number eight that he guards guarding the paths of justice and then verse number eight also and he preserves the way of The Godly ones that uh these are the things that come out of the source of wisdom that God protects the way of the upright from the pitfalls and from the snares of evil the protection wisdom promises is against the violent and the deceitful men of our of any particular day and the seductive women of any particular day in which someone would live so what we have in verse number eight is really the doctrine of the perseverance of the Saints found in other places in scripture it’s it says there he preserves the way of The Godly ones The Godly ones who are they they are the seekers in at least in Proverbs of wisdom who are respectable and good and God-fearing people the word specifically means those who are loyally devoted to God and His Covenant and who remain loyal through thick and thin these are the people who develop wisdom they develop discernment they develop Discovery all right it’s for the for it says in other scriptures that the lord loves Justice and does not forsake his Godly ones they are preserved forever and then again in Psalm 70 97 it says hate evil you who love the Lord who preserves The Souls of his Godly ones he delivers them from the hand of the wicked so uh the bottom line is that the fruit of true wisdom is an obedient loyal and faithful people of God that would be the first thing uh the second thing a person who diligently sinks after wisdom would understand is that they will know the value and the path of wisdom and of course that’s in verse number nine of chapter two then you will discern righteousness and Justice and equity and every good course so see wisdom will be more treasured than any other precious object or person on this side of Eternity the person will know that they are pursuing the source and the embodiment of wisdom which is uh which is God himself along with that God will bestow as a gift the shrewdness to keep safe on the road to life and also the knowledge to even enjoy life he will give both to those who are diligently seeking wisdom so those who fail and become dropouts on the road to wisdom God does not and and of course that does not mean that any person is lacking intellectual ability or physical strength it means that they don’t fear God nor do they take his word very seriously so um they don’t pursue wisdom nor do they seek after it but they seek after something but not that now that leads me to where I want to go today and that is the rescuing nature of wisdom the person who is diligently diligently pursuing wisdom will know that it has a rescuing nature to it uh and and this is very much important as this passage of scripture deals with something that’s very close to home for all of us matter of fact it’s something that everyone in our culture must at some time deal with it no matter who you are in fact it’s amazing that chapter two of Proverbs even brings it up for this is many many many years uh ago that this was written but it was written to prepare young people especially young men for the King’s Service for serving in the Kingdom that the king wanted wise people didn’t want fools or the naive or uh you know the scoffers he wanted wise people so the wise people can carry carry out the business of the king I I think of Proverbs in this way it’s like a map and compass it’s like a uh a book that teaches us uh how to prepare for life in other words without doing all of life especially the evil part of life I remember when I was in the Marine Corps I had a Mac map and Compass Course and uh didn’t think much of it when I took it but I I took it and then uh we were put in a situation where we were dropped into this area uh that I was never in and I all I had on me was a map and compass and some C rations and uh me and our platoon went in there and we had to get from point A to point B uh and the only way that I can see where the swamps were and where the cliffs were and where the all the problem areas were was to look at that map and to find out where I was as far as my compass was north south east and west which way I had a head uh and if I did that I could avoid certain things and get to my destination without that map Encompass I would I would be going through swamp I would be going through this I would be going through that and I would get myself in a lot of trouble and so Proverbs is is a lot like that it will help us to avoid the pitfalls of life and it will bring us to a place where we can uh have a sense of I’m not going to go there and I’m not going to go here I’m going to go right here I’m going to walk in the fear of the Lord I’m going to walk on the narrow path that pleases God so there’s three facts about the rescuing nature of wisdom that I want to look at this morning and the first one is this that the rescuing nature of wisdom has a direction to it all right it has a direction to it in verse number 10 here is the direction it says my son or excuse me in verse number 10 of chapter 2 for wisdom will enter your heart that’s the first thing that goes on as far as the direction of wisdom where’s the wisdom heading it’s heading for your heart your mind your emotions and your will that’s where it’s heading it wants to place itself there in fact Proverbs 14 33 says wisdom rests in the heart of one who has understanding but in the bosom of fools it is made known so wisdom is given to us to have the skill to live life in a way that uh is beautiful in a way that is skillful all right and also the next thing under the direction of wisdom is that wisdom is considered to be it says in verse number 10 the knowledge will be pleasant to your soul so see it’s a personal thing when we are gaining and growing in wisdom it has a pleasantness to it uh it will living by wisdom will will will not take away the fun in other words of life or the joy of life it is actually rewarding and it is fulfilling and happy so happiness and pleasure come from obedience this is what wisdom will do for us God’s wisdom that comes from above comes through the word of God to us and also it will give us discretion in verse number 11. this discretion in this way it will guard you it will be like a sentence a sentinel around your life to guard you from things all right to protect you from things uh discretion uh has the ability to actually act appropriately in different manners uh in different times in different places and then again in verse number 11 uh understanding will watch over you now so the wisdom that we gain from God will watch over you now this is all setting us up for what is coming um and that’s the second thing about the rescuing nature of wisdom and that the rescuing of nature of wisdom has a purposeful design and what is that design well there there’s a general purpose and that is in verse number 12 to deliver from the path of evil to deliver you from the way of evil all right and in other words don’t even somebody who’s growing in wisdom don’t even get on the path of evil that leads to evil people in other words you will crash across paths with people who are evil but don’t walk where they walk don’t do what they do all right and then there’s a specific purpose and that’s deliverance from the people of evil not just the way of evil but the people of evil and of course it says in verse number 12 it says from the man who speaks perverse things so in other words the design the rescuing nature of wisdom has a purposeful design to deliver you and I from the evil person from the evil man now of course when we think about that the evil man doesn’t have a a name tag or a plaque in front of whom says I’m an evil man evil men are usually very likable people matter of fact they’re very good with words they can get you to like them they can get you in their frame of thinking right that’s why it says in verse number 12 I’m to be delivered from the evil man who speaks perverse things well how do I know he speaks perverse things I don’t know unless I’m wise unless I’m growing in wisdom see these perverse words picture of value system that is turned upside down see truth becomes error and error becomes truth like it says in proverbs 10 31 the mouth of the righteous from the mouth of the righteous flows with wisdom but a perverted tongue will be cut out the lips of the righteous bring forth what is acceptable but the mouth of the wicked what is perverted see their words by their words they draw others into the morass of their way of thinking and behaving they are clever at making a wicked deed sound like the right thing to do words that give the appearance of freedom and Independence but actually are words that lead to slavery and of course if you look at verse number 13 of chapter 2 it says I am protected from those who leave the path of uprightness all right so they forsake the straight road for a more traveled one he takes the broad Road of irreligion and vanity and vice the road where the pursuit of God is absent in fact in verse number 13 It also says to walk in the ways of Darkness he likes the ways of the Shadows and then verse 14 who Delight in doing evil and rejoice in the perversity of evil so see this person is caught up in sin and enjoys it gets a kick out of sins perverseness and they approve of everything god disapproves of if we just recalled what the prophet Isaiah was saying to the people who were no longer listening to the word of God this is what he said to them tell me if this sounds like today’s news woe to those who call evil good and good evil who substitute Darkness for light and light for Darkness who substitute bitter for sweet and Sweet for bitter woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and clever in their own sight Isaiah chapter 5 verse 20 and 21 that is Keen to what’s going on today how do we navigate those kind of things in our life because in verse 15 of chapter 2 you notice whose paths are crooked and their road is ever winding about and turning in every direction now in saying all that let me just bring it down to at least one way in which evil is pressed Upon Us by evil people and it is done many times cloaked in profit Financial profit because certain things that are evil are very profitable now you say what are you talking about well let me just uh give you a word about the path of evil concerning pornography it is Big Business and lucrative and it is promoted by Wicked people many get caught in the Trap they have found a way to get into your home into your bedroom through your computer they’ve found the way to get there they found a way to charge you for it but pornography is a great danger to the physical and emotional and psychological and spiritual well-being of the human being men and women boys and girls if we are going to walk on the paths of wisdom we simply cannot allow pornography to become or remain integrated into our lives Tim Challis wrote a book called sexual detox and he calls pornography the monster in Disguise and suggests some helpful ways to think about pornography in a way that we can kill the thing and not go near it he said that pornography is really has something inherent in it it is first of all mocking to God secondly it is something that is violent in its nature and then thirdly it is Progressive it will take you deeper and deeper and deeper so you can’t get out of it see let me just consider the first one that it is mocking that pornography makes a mockery of God’s intention for sex and goes against God’s purposes God says the purpose of sex is to build Unity between a husband and a wife pornography says it is about fulfilling any perceived need with any partner willing or unwilling God says sexual desire is good and in a in a controlled context because it urges a man to pursue his wife and a wife to pursue her husband in the context of course in marriage only pornography says sexual desire cannot and should not be controlled but should be allowed to draw us to anyone we find attractive so in that sense it is definitely mocking what God has designed and so therefore a wise person will know that wicked men have come up with this and I didn’t stay away from it a second thing is that it is violent pornography reshapes our understanding of sex of manhood of Womanhood it perverts how God designed things like in our culture right now they’re trying to erase the gender distinctions completely from our culture and believe me they’re doing it because they have the power of the media so if it’s if the church doesn’t get a hold of this and practice it in our own life then we’ll be swept up in this thing also and we cannot be we cannot be because pornography is inherently violent that means it is inherently unloving it’s not about mutual love and caring and commitment it is about Conquest it is about having your own way with someone else it is it really cares love from sex leaving sex as the immediate gratification of Base desires it lives beyond rules and ethics and morality see that’s the power of pornography but there’s a third thing that goes with that it’s Progressive it’s Progressive and that’s the real nature of sin isn’t it see sin is always Progressive as it says in Proverbs 27 20 sheol that’s hell and Abaddon destruction are never satisfied nor are the eyes of man ever satisfied the eyes of man is Never Satisfied see this sin of pornography always wants more always seeks to break out beyond the current boundaries if we give an inch it soon takes a mile a naked body is all the eye needs a single Glimpse provides plenty of full of fuel for a while but before long the heart craves more what was once satisfying is now boring what it was once gross is now desirable this is always the way of sin it will gain Mastery over you and make you its slave that’s always the nature of sin it will take you further than you intend to go it will keep you longer than you intended to stay and it will make you pay more than you want to pay and it will bankrupt you that’s what it’ll do it is Progressive we see we desire we take that is the pattern the downward spiral of sin so young men young men men in general you must not let this to be integrated in your heart and get on the path of evil which on that path are the evil people behind it we must not go there if we do if one does they will remain a foolish deceitful cunning and they will end up being a predatory male you will remain immature and self-centered ungodly just living a fulfilled the base Cravings of the flesh see wisdom and God’s word brings us far beyond that Real Men Real Men Who desire to be Godly by submitting to God and his commands will be willing to wait and they will want to wait not because of lack of sexual interest but because a healthy fear of God has taken place in their heart it is a love which expresses itself in protection from sin and shame and for the woman who is willing to and wanting to wait for the same reasons will want to marry a Godly Man who is self-controlled and has a clear sense of his calling as a man a man who will in the end be her provider and protector and her loving leader so see so so waiting will reveal whether your heart has been pursuing purity that’s what waiting will do Pursuit Purity is the litmus test waiting is the practice of sexual purity doing things right in the manner of our heart means understanding the incredible power you wield in deciding to wait for sexual intimacy until you’re married see that’s wisdom is that an easy path today no because it see it’s a struggle we’re all confronted with it but we have to take this seriously or we will be led down the path that those wisdom says don’t be led down don’t be led down by these evil people see pursuing wisdom in other words in the fear of the Lord will keep you off that path and keep you away from the people of evil behind it that’s what it’ll do it’s got a rescuing nature to it because I now I read the scripture I know what this can do to me and I don’t want to go there I know it’s going to do it to my mind and I don’t want to go there I know how it will pervert my mind when I when the person does meet the person they’re going to marry that they are thinking in their mind if they’re wise about pure things and not about all these images that have been logged into their brain and now they’re evaluating the person they’re marrying by what they the images that are logged in their mind and that is very destructive it is destructive not only before marriage it is destructive in marriage so we must stay off that path and by God’s spirit we will because see God’s desires to sanctify us that’s his will in Thessalonians to sanctify us to set us apart from what from what the world is doing and how the world is thinking and how the world is going in the way we should not go all right getting back to our text now this leads to where I’m going because the rescuing nature of wisdom’s purposeful design will also keep you off the path of evil women notice what it says in verse number 16 to deliver you from the strange woman now the evil woman is called strange because she is a woman outside the boundaries of the marriage relationship she becomes a spiritual and social Outsider because she deliberately chooses to violate the Covenant of her people see the relationship described as a relationship outside the circle of what is proper between a man and a woman she pursues men for her own evil purposes she wants to entangle men in an improper relationship and how does she do that well she does it the same way the man does with her words that’s the way she does it she does it with her words look at verse number 16.

it says from the adulteress who flatters with her words right that’s what she does in fact look over to Proverbs chapter five and verse number three it says for the lips of the adulteress drips honey so she’s a sweet talker and then in verse 3 2 smoother than oil is their speech she’s a sweet talker and she is a smooth talker and see why is this recorded here in Scripture because the Bible is telling us reality this is the way it happens this is the truth right here if we if we have knowledge and the wisdom of God in our heart and our heart is filled up with wisdom we are going to be evaluating what everybody says to us and Men you’re going to be evaluating with women say to you and women you’re going to be evaluating what men say to you because see why are you doing that is because you’re wise see she uses here words to flatter and the word flatter means smooth slippery and deceitful see women can say things and wear things that arouse the interest of men and they know that actually the new revised Standard Version translates verse 16 like this you will be saved from the loose woman from the adulteress with her smooth words see the point is the Temptation is accomplished first by words designed to interest designed to entice a sweet lure a sweet baited lore with a little flattery a little uh a little deceit works every time the male ego is susceptible to sweet nothings if you’re right there in chapter five look at verse four but this is where Godly wisdom goes this is where Godly wisdom evaluates it says but the end but in the end she is bitter as warmword sharp as a two-edged sword her feet verse number five her feet go down to death her steps lay hold of sheol in verse number six she does not Ponder the path of Life her ways are unstable she does not know it see that’s where wisdom looks the irony is that the woman who wishes to control the man by her words is not actually in control of the events her words and actors had her words and actions have consequences of which she is unaware it says at the end there she does not know it see she’s blind blinded by her own passions and desires and not Guided by wisdom she gives throws to the wind what she knows is right to do in fact if you go back to chapter 2 verse number 17 here’s another thing she does she leaves the companion of her youth now this is very important because this word companion in verse number 17.

and forgets the Covenant of her God becomes the key to avoid an adulterous relationship it says she leaves the companion of her youth the companionship in other words has broken apart with someone else she in other words is no longer close with her husband so she’s looking around and it could be vice versa too this is how adultery begins leaving the companionship and the closeness of your spouse when you are married Proverbs another passage of scripture says in Proverbs a perverse man spread strife and a slanderer separates intimate friends meaning close friends friends that are tight in fact the word used here I used many times in my preaching uh marriages and doing marriages is the word for companion does the word came you can tame a wild animal all right the idea is that you get close you can get close to a tamed animal but you can cannot get close to a wild animal right in other words you can get close to your wife you can get close to your husband in fact the way God designed it you can get closer to your spouse more than any other human relationship on this Earth and that’s how we design it but it is the responsibility of the husband and wife relationship to make sure the intimacy is continually growing no matter how many years you’ve been married that is your responsibility why that is the wise thing to do that is the wise thing to do that will keep us off the path of the wicked person see in other words this is where an affair begins it begins long before another person is involved it starts when both the husband the wife slowly grow distant from each other and in their heart they begin to move away from the closeness and the intimacy of their relationship and they start drifting apart oh they’re still living together they’re still married they still have kids they still have responsibility they still go to work but in their hearts they’re moving away that’s not wise the job of the husband and the wife is to make sure that spark and that fire is going on all the time you’re stoking that fire man and you’re keeping your love and your passion for each other alive why because that’s the wise thing to do because that prevents you from being tempted into a relationship that you should not be in so see see if this pattern is not corrected and the closeness maintained it could lead to a descending level of choices which it usually does in other words if he stops being close to his wife and she stops being close to him then the opportunity for someone else becomes a viable temptation to them in fact in verse 17 it says and forgets the Covenant of her God see so when closeness is not maintained between the husband and the wife both are baited and when the pleasure and excitement and the fantasy of sin kicks in from someone else that’s when you’re willing to even throw the Covenant of God to the wind that she violates the law as she forsakes her husband and deliberately fails to obey her marriage vows made before God of course of course both are sinning one deliberately one blindly but both responsible the situation in the path leads always to destruction see what started out innocently leads to full-blown adultery and becomes destructive to your relationship in fact in verse number 18 if you notice the destruction it says for her house sinks down to death and your tracks lead to death or leads to the Dead that means she’s she’s traveling at debt’s door she she places her house at that store an affair has the potential to cause great destruction in fact if you look again over to chapter 5 verse number five it says her feet go down to death her steps lay hold of sheol she does not Ponder the path of Life her ways are unstable she does not know it see she plunders recklessly to her Rune and drags her victims down with her it is a downward slope the man is destroyed and of course the marriage could be destroyed if you notice in chapter 5 also verse number 9 that there is something that could take place and in verse 9 it says of chapter five or will you give your Vigor to others and your years to the cruel one all right in other words they can lose every shredded dignity and respect from relatives neighbors and friends because of it and then in verse number 10 it says and this and strangers will be filled with your strength and your hard-earned goods will go to the house of an alien and you will groan at your final end when your flesh and your body are consumed in other words this kind of thing could lead to uh material physical mental anguish physical problems uh and then in chapter 5 and verse 12 and 13 it says and you say how I have hated instruction and my heart’s spurn repute reproof I have not listened to the voice of my teachers nor incline my ear to my instructors in other words they didn’t listen at the end they realized I didn’t listen to wisdom I threw to the wind so they laid down their navigational equipment and that could have delivered them and they gave into temptation and got caught down in the downward spiral of sin that leads to destruction but at the same time when the closeness is not there anymore it’s both the man and the woman’s problem they both contribute to it the woman may drive him away by contentiousness by nagging by crafts and friends and work and family and grandkids and all those things and not paid attention to him the husband may not pursue his wife because he’s into fishing in sports and work and friends and hobbies and you know they’re not nurturing their companionship they’re not protecting their mind and their heart from lustful thoughts they’re not holding the standard of wisdom High see in other words wisdom is saying don’t let this be a part of your life you don’t have to why because you have been given God’s word to show you that you don’t ever have to go there that’s where God never wants you to be ever want you to be carefully guard your relationships with others protect and nurture your relationship with your spouse no woman should be your confident except your wife men and no man should be your confident except your husband women it cannot happen can a married man and a woman have close friends of the opposite sex individually and privately no well what about the innocent married people who are thrust together with up the opposite opposite sex because of their job situation and ends up developing a close relationship well clearly we are told to stay clear of that so what is the solution there is a solution thank the Lord and like I said this is the rescuing nature of wisdom if you were caught in that whether it’s in your mind or in a reality there is a solution see the solution is is simple the solution is go back and build what is lacking in the close marriage relationship go back to the original blueprints to companionship and closeness that is the key to a deep in love to a deepened commitment to a deepened pleasure with your spouse in fact that’s exactly what it says look at chapter 5 verse 15. look what we did with me see wisdom in other words says remain close growing deeper in love with your spouse verse 15 of Proverbs 5 drink water from your own cistern and fresh water from your own well that’s talking about the sexual desires there verse 16 should your Springs be dispersed abroad streams of of water in the streets let them be yours alone not a Strangers With You Verse 18 let your fountain be blessed and notice rejoice in the wife of your youth rejoice in the wife that you married rejoice in the husband that you married and then look at verse 19 can you get any more specific than this verse 19 as a loving Hind and a graceful dough now we don’t use words like that today but you get it it’s poetic it’s telling us listen let her breasts satisfy you at all times be exhilarated always with their love be intoxicated with their love yes I’m married 35 years how can I be intoxicated we’re love you Ken why because that’s the way God designed it so people don’t believe that see they don’t believe that because they let all this other stuff get in they get let all the stuff rowed out Ness good things honorable things no you gotta let that out remember you’re always married to your spouse you’re never married to your work to your kids or to anything else you’re married to each other and that is honorably for the Lord so that’s what it says here and then verse number 20 and why should you my son be exhilarated with an adulteress and embrace the bosom of a foreigner it’s a question why should you do that why should you give your strength why should you give everything you worked for why should you give your character and your integrity and your responsibility before your family and your community and your children why should you give that to someone else see you see where wisdom’s doing here it’s showing us reality this is reality we live in this world right we experience this we know people we don’t have to go there and if we have gone there God will rescue you wisdom will rescue you get back to the closeness in your relationship you’re both responsible for that in fact look at chapter 6 verse 20. look at chapter six this goes on in in chapter nine in other places it says chapter verse number 20 for the Commandment is a lamp Proverbs 6 20. and the teaching is light and reproofs for discipline are the way of life look at verse 24 to keep you from the evil woman from the smooth tongue of of the adulteress verse 25 do not desire her beauty in your heart nor let her catch you with her eyelids for on account of a harlot one is reduced to a loaf of bread and an adulterous hunts for the precious life verse 27 can a man take fire in his bosom and his clothes not be burned or can a man walk on hot coals and his feet not be scorched verse 29 so is the one who goes into his neighbor’s wife whoever touches her will not go unpunished tell me that is not clear but see this was written to teenage boys who were going to work in the King’s Service teenage boys are to know these things so when they go out into that world and they go into that that secular classroom and if they go on to their job and they get involved with some of the things this is going to be slapping them in the face every day they have to know and they must make their choice now as what they’re going to do they must and husbands and wife you must make your choice now on how you’re going to respond and live with your spouse no matter what they’ve done you need to get back to closeness no matter what you’ve done you need to get back to closeness that’s wisdom and not only that it’s the path to a joyful life it’s the path to a healthy life it’s the path to to past Integrity down to your kids I know how to be a husband and a wife why because my mom and dad because of my grandfather and my grandmother you may not have many examples but you need to be the example why because you have wisdom you’ve been given the word of God and it’s right there for us see so there’s a rescuing nature to the wisdom of God it could keep you off the path of evil it can keep you from the people of evil whether it’s a man or a woman and it can actually bless you and keep you in your heart and soul healthy look back at chapter 2 as I conclude about there’s a third and last fact about the rescuing nature of wisdom that means you can get back on the path if you got off the path because the rescuing nature of wisdom has a destination to it what’s the destination look at verse number 20 of chapter two so you will walk in the way of what good men and keep the paths of righteousness isn’t that what you want that is the way to Joy that’s the way to peace that’s the way to be blessed in your life and then also verse 21 you’ll you’ll have the enjoyment of God’s blessing for the upright will live in the land and the blameless will remain in it meaning that as you live in the land God will give you the blessings of that place and then a third thing is that there will be a control of sin in the place that you live it says but the wicked will be cut off from the land that you dwell in and the treacherous will be uprooted from it that means God will take care of things you cannot take care of so wisdom will keep you aware of your own remaining corruption wisdom will give you the right knowledge of the source of Temptation which exists in abundant Variety in our day wisdom will provide discernment for the snares of Temptation wisdom will Enlighten to identify the people of sin in the path of sin see wisdom knowledge and understanding are the equipment the the map encompass against the Flaming darts of evil men and evil women and may I say an evil Society because that’s where our society is going it’s being permeated by evil people from the top down and we have to live in it we cannot become like them we must be as different as the sun we must be because that’s where God calls us to be so I pray that this is preventative medicine that’s what it is this is something I need to hear every year I need to look at this every year and examine myself and see where I stand here because in the end in the end I want to be able to give a good report to the Lord on how I live my life if I stay on the path of wisdom it will bring me to a destination in which I can recover and rescue what sin has destroyed not to its fullness of course but to the place where good conducts Good Conduct carries with it its own reward good behavior carries with it it’s good his own reward and bad behavior carries within its own agony all right I have to make the choice you have to make the choice every day young people you have to make the choice every day how are you going to live with all the Temptations that are out there how are you going to live I just want to end with one thing and it’s this I ran across this book an old book written by JC Ryle and uh when my son and I used to go every Sunday to the Manville Bakery get our Donuts uh we would read this book together and we would talk about the chapter and it it ended up being a very good time with him because we talked about many other things in the book but there’s one quote in the book I just want to leave you with it’s somewhat related to what I was talking about and this is the quote from JC Ryle from this book the thoughts for young men he says this he would willingly make you he’s talking about the cunnings of Satan and in this book and he says this he will willingly make you think evil good and good evil he will paint and mask and dress up sin in order to make you fall in love with it he will deform and Mysteries misrepresent and caricature True Religion in order to make you uh this uh take a dislike to it he will exalt the pleasures of wickedness but he will hide from you the sting he will lift up before your eyes the cross and its painfulness but he will keep out of your sight the Eternal crown he will promise you everything as he did Christ if you will only serve him he will even help you wear a form of religion if you will only neglect the power of it he will tell you at the beginning of your life it is too soon to serve God and he will tell you at the end of your life it’s too late to serve God be not deceived let’s pray Lord I just thank you this morning for the word of God it is an Incredible Book your word Lord it is more up to date than tomorrow’s newspaper it tells us about the thoughts and intents of our heart before we even have those thoughts and intents but Lord I pray that as we consider the truths found in this passage of scripture that you would Aid all of us and enable all of us to every time we’re in a situation we would use the wisdom of God to be able to evaluate the pros and cons the beginning the middle and the end of something before we even engage in it Lord allow us to be men and women who have integrity and special Integrity in the purity of our mind and integrity in the closeness of our marriage relationship oh Lord please keep us away from the path of evil men keep us out of the presence of evil people and if we detect them Lord let us move far from them but Lord give us the compassion and the strength to give them the gospel so they too may come to know and believe in Jesus Christ as their lord and savior Lord we bow down before you and we thank you for your goodness to us and I pray this in Christ’s name amen

July 12, 2015
The Voice of Wisdom: Are You Listening?

In this Father’s Day sermon, Pastor Babij examines the teaching of Proverbs regarding heeding God’s call for wisdom. Specifically, Pastor Babij explores the commands in Proverbs 1 to hear wisdom, to not abandon wisdom, and to avoid the company and seductive words of fools, simpletons, and mockers. As part of his explanation, Pastor Babij explains the emptiness of the world’s promises and the surety of wisdom’s rewards.

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all right let’s take our Bibles this morning and turn to Proverbs chapter 1.

I have been regularly preaching through the gospel of Mark taking his step out this morning and uh preaching through Proverbs it’s always good to look into the wisdom literature of the Old Testament uh to really get a good perspective another voice a voice that comes from God on how we should live our life uh now in our in our lives right now while we’re walking and breathing on this Earth how does god require us to live well this uh Book of Proverbs tells us many pithy sayings not promises but pithy sayings of wisdom on how uh to live in a way that we can follow the path that God lays out for the wise person and avoid being foolish avoid being naive avoid being a scoffer uh but being wise and believe me this message is not just for fathers this is for specifically young people actually because Proverbs was written in a way to get young people young men specifically ready to work within the kingdom of Solomon and so they would be wise young men and they would be picked to do that so they would be trained in the Proverbs in these sayings so that’s what this book is about and that what this book can challenge us in before I look at it let’s have a word of prayer Lord this morning I ask you to continue to guide us and direct us in the truth of your word really impress upon our heart that in the two ways that are always offered to us to go I pray Lord that we would always percentage-wise be choosing your way more than any other way that is offered to us enable us to do it Lord so we would be people who are growing and increasing in knowledge in the knowledge of our God and the knowledge of our Lord and savior and in doing so Lord we may become wise people who know how to make decisions based on the word of God and not based on any other influences that could push us away from walking with you and I prayed this in Christ’s name amen so before us we’re going to be looking at chapter one and follow along with me the verses are also on the back of your bulletin and then the verses that are not there you may need your Bible for because I’m going to be looking at like verses 20 also in onwards some of the things that are being said there so before us today is really two-way teaching there’s two roads the broad Road and the narrow road the inexperienced person untaught fully by wisdom is instructed in the two Paths of life one is characterized by seductive words and glittering prizes though in reality it’s strewn with traps that they do not see and the other way is The Honorable way it is the secure way it is in some sense the safe way so one voice lies and says nothing about the danger of Southern sudden death the other is truthful and the fact remains that there are two ways that lay before every person see which will you take is really the question wisdom exposes the hidden Nets in the traps the potholes and the barriers Folly fails to recognize or ignores the dangers or just hopes they won’t get caught in the Trap a New York Times article written in 2007 was an obituary of a very uh famous Christian leader and as this man wrote in his own biography and he said this at his death before his death we are born in a war zone where the forces of God do battle with the forces of evil sometimes we get trapped pinned down in the crossfire and In the Heat of that noise in that distracting battle battle two voices call out to us to follow Satan wants to lead us into death God wants to lead us into eternal life so when we look at this particular book we’re going to see that that’s what wisdom is wisdom is something that’s calling out to people it’s available to all but not all listen and the most the people that are most available to wisdom are the people that this the word of God is specifically talking to and if you notice in verse number eight and nine of chapter one it’s really saying can you hear the call of wisdom and notice where it comes from in verse 8 chapter 1. it says hear my son your father’s instruction and do not forsake your mother’s teaching indeed they are a graceful wreath to your head and ornaments about your neck so here it is in these two verses it’s calling everyone to pay attention to the beautiful instruction of wise Guardians widesparents it includes the father’s instruction and the mother’s teaching together and so it’s saying to the young person do you hear the call it’s an imperative here and it’s not just a list a it’s a it’s an intensive and a very interested listening it’s a listening to get understanding it’s a listening to get the grasp of what’s being taught is not it is not a dull listening here it’s a very keen hearing that is put forth on the side of those who are listening to the wisdom and so the instruction here is to give attention to the Torah the Torah is the word of God and the Torah teaches wise instruction that means how to live in the present it teaches it gives us prophetic teaching that’s the plan and the promises that lead to Salvation it gives us instruction about the Messianic age where it’s all heading in God’s plan also the body of Priestly Direction and instruction is giving on how to approach God the way that honors God and then of course the legal directors in the Old Testament how to obey God and then the law of burnt offering is how to be approach God and be forgiven by God and all those pointed to Christ who would fulfill all those things and he would become the Eternal sacrifice that anyone who’s going to end up in the presence of God has to come through Jesus Christ the son to be forgiven and to be made right with God that’s the only way that is God’s plan now the wisdom in the Old Testament actually leads there in fact it would we could say that he’s telling his son the mother and the father are telling their children the whole counsel of God all of scripture is necessary instruction for wise and godly living it was the Apostle Paul who told young Timothy who would become a pastor he said to him in First Timothy second Timothy chapter 1 but evil men and imposters will proceed from bad to worse deceiving and being deceived and then he says to him you however Timothy continue in the things you have learned and become convinced of knowing from whom you have learned them and that from a from childhood you have known the sacred writings which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to Salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus so the scriptures all the scriptures are designed to point anyone who would listen to God’s solution to our ultimate sin problem and that person is Jesus Christ so these are not just words these are words and instructions that lead somewhere so where did Timothy learn the sacred writings did he learn them from famous people with great intellectual Minds know he learned them from his mother and his grandmother they took time to teach him the words of God so my friends realize the prominent role both parents play in shaping the character and in convincing their children that the scriptures are true and can be relied upon but the only way they’re really going to get that message is if we live that message not just give lip service to it they have to see it in our life and they really can’t argue with that and they may not believe it they may reject it but they cannot argue and come to a rational conclusion that my parents loved Christ and lived Christ they can’t argue with that oh they weren’t perfect but they sure did believe what they said and lived it so see Timothy got that Foundation right in his family his wise and godly Guardians gave it to him his parents gave it to him and wise parents are to be sold on instructing the children under their charge in God’s ways which is the right way so wise parents make instructing their children in the way of the Lord a priority in their life nothing is more important than teaching children about life from God’s perspective because in the word of God we will find the realities of wisdom and Folly we will see the realities of righteousness and wickedness we will see the realities of Truth and error in fact God considers Godly instruction to be of greater value than anything else an adult or young adult can take away from the home so parents I want to admonish you to seriously consider your situation and to begin today to implement these teaching within your own family life if we don’t teach our children faith and obedience it may cost them their life and it may cost them their eternal life so here is the command not to abandon first it’s the command to hear in verse number 8 of chapter one it says the command not to abandon in verse number eight it says this hear my son your father’s instruction do not forsake your mother’s teaching verse 9 indeed there are graceful wreath to your head and your and ornaments about your neck and then it says of course listen do not forsake your mother’s teaching that means don’t abandon it uh don’t lay it aside don’t cast it off don’t reject it so see the preparation given by wise parents is not to be laid aside by the Young adults leaving the home that is to learn of course when they leave the home usually to learn more formally from teachers who would train them in their roles in the world this means that parents instructions will be the foundation in which they will build the superstructure of knowledge and if cast off or laid aside everything else seems to crumble if you’re not holding to the wisdom that comes from God’s word so listen to me young people young adults learn well the teachings of your parents who fear a God because someday soon you may be in a situation in which you are hearing by certain professors or teachers or mentors or colleagues or business associates friends that you you may be enticed tempted to cast off Biblical teaching for something you think in the moment is more practical rational and real in other words more flesh appealing it appeals more to where you’re at in your life so if you lay aside the teaching of your mother and your father it will reveal a deep spiritual problem if indeed they have been following the word of God and it will show also that your affections have moved in another direction away from the Lord and focusing on another object so don’t give in to The Temptations but hold fast to the faith to the body of doctrine that you have learned in our learning and seek Godly counsel and get your affections back on the Lord and your mind back in the word of God if you sensed that you have strayed away in fact in the Old Testament the warning for the people of Israel was listen when you go into the new land after coming out of the desert right there’s going to be two ways offered to you there’s going to be the way of the people who are in the land and it’s going to be God’s way and this is what is written in Deuteronomy it says for then I bring them into a land flowing with milk and honey which I swore to their father and they have eaten and are satisfied and become prosperous then they will turn to other gods and served them and spurned me and break my Covenant then it shall come about when many evils and troubles have come upon them that this song will testify before them as a witness for it shall not be forgotten from the lips of their descendants for I know their intent which they are developing today before I have brought them into the lamb that I swore to them in other words it says they forsook God and they went after strange gods and of course that provoked the anger of the Lord and brought curses into their life instead of blessing so the command not to aband what you were taught is secondly then there’s a third thing connected in verse number nine that it says that this teaching that is coming from your mother and your father is actually uh verse number nine indeed they are a graceful wreath to your head and ornaments about your neck so what it’s saying there is that when you live this way when you live according to the wisdom of God’s word there’s a crown of obedience there’s a beauty that comes arises up from your life in fact it it means that listen the teaching that you’re putting into practice the skill that you’re putting into practice on how to live life beautifully demonstrates to other people looking at your life that you’re getting something that they’re not getting that you’re getting something that no one else is teaching so Solomon wrote this book so that when you live out your life it has Beauty to it it has purpose to it it has meaning to it in fact the instruction when lived out has an eye-catching Beauty about it that is attractive and how it how does it say it in Scripture it says that it’s a graceful wreath on your head and it’s ornaments about your neck in other words it’s like wearing very attractive clothing and jewelry that gets the attention of people that see it so the wreath is really probable probably some Greenery or flowers placed about the head at a prominent place that displays honor and that displays Beauty so to keep the wise teaching of your God fearing parents is like attractive jewelry on your body for all to see so their teaching will be seen all over you it will not only be seen in your appearance it will be seen in your speech it will be seen in your actions it will be seen in the desires that you have in your life it will be seen actually in the way that you go it will be seen everywhere so in Proverbs it tells us in chapter 4 verse 9 she will place on your head a Garland of Grace she will present you with a crown of beauty so the she here is not the mother that she is here in wisdom wisdom is is referred to as a she in scripture and so this is something that were to find attractive even ourselves we want it in our life all right so once we begin to learn the word of God and once parents get a hold of teaching the word of God and living it out there’s always a warning that comes with scripture the warning is to maintain caution when you’re moving in and out of people groups and situations uh in other words as soon as you learn what God says there’s competition on the other side you’re going to hear the other arguments now the point of the church is to give young people and to give people in general God’s point of view on things so when you go out there you’ll have God’s point of view the problem today is no one’s getting God’s point of view and everybody’s getting the world’s point of view and so they have no other voice speaking to them and so and again it’s a privilege to be a believer because we are being challenged in the word of God that the this is reality this is what’s going to happen when you go out there the Bible doesn’t pull any punches at all and so you’re going to hear other voices don’t you you are going to hear the voices verse number 10 of chapter one it says my son if Sinners entice you do not consent now let me just stop there for a minute so wisdom understands and hears the voices that appeal to the base sinful desires and passion of their human nature why because they are already understanding that they’re a sinner they already know there are certain temptations that are out there that are going to pull them away from following the Lord so you hear the promises and the Appeals from fun-loving sinners hearing doesn’t mean that you are doing or following them not at least not yet but they are appealing to you it says if my son if Sinners entice you so here’s a straightforward stamlage method between two warnings in verse number 10 do not consent and then in verse number 15 do not walk in the way with them so first it’s saying listen don’t listen to them evaluate them from God’s perspective and then don’t let them get to the point where you’re starting to walk where they walk don’t let it get to the point where you’re starting to go where they go see in the midst of powerful Temptation they say don’t even put your wisdom says don’t even put your feet on the path the very word enticed means is from the root Hebrew word that means simple or to be spacious or open or wide all right so don’t let their wide view of things seduce you to walk in their ways and what is their call in verse number the call of the sinner in verse number 11 is if they say come with us isn’t that it isn’t that peer pressure the voice is just as strong and as loud as the voice of Godly wisdom in fact it may even be stronger because it appeals to the very base sinful rebellious nature that we’re all born with come on come with us go walk with us come party with us live a little lay aside those old fogy convictions that you received from your church and your family lighten up a bit enjoy life in our perspective enjoy life so the hardened Sinners rhetoric is aggressively and persuasively recruiting for their way of life it’s offering an attractive alternative to the day-in day out grind that we’re all we all experience come with us we will show you a quick way to gain prosperity we will show you a quick thrill we will live a risky life and they throw they want that person to throw conviction to the wind and go their way well there’s a promise to the of The Sinner that’s given in their desire to want to convince other people in verse number 11 actually there’s three subtle promises and they are powerful temptations that appeal perfectly with a Young Person’s healthy desire for adventure Independence and fearless friends we all desire that in some way we all have that that sense in us we want more action in our life right we want more Adventure in our life and so it seems to appeal to that in other words the enticements are tailor-made for young people and what’s the first one it’s the excitement for in a sense Adventure the promise in verse number 11 is let us lie and wait for blood let us Ambush the innocent without cause let us swallow them alive like shio even whole as those who go down to the pit so so she’ll here may be conceived of more as a power than a place that these people eat people up that she’ll eat a people and is never satisfied there’s an insatiable UNS desire that’s not satisfied and so they prey on the innocent and the unsuspecting people they lie hidden and they wait for foolish and naive the naive character to come along and they are not who are not wise and nor caring uh when they do that and they have really have no reason for this Behavior except to satisfy their Lust For The Thrill Ride so they there’s an excitement for power secondly in verse 13 there’s a appeal for easy money it says in verse 13 of chapter 1 we shall find all kinds of precious wealth we shall fill our houses with spoil so the promise of easy and quick money always gets people attention they say I’ll make my fortune while I’m young because that’s the real goal to life to make your money to get all your security and money but remember money will not make you happy so if anybody who thinks that money will make me happy and secure they’re just lying to themselves if I have to get it by stealing by breaking the law by by selling things I ought not to sell I want that lifestyle and I’ll have it by hooker crook and yet it was remember again Paul telling young Timothy about riches and he says to him but those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a snare and many foolish and harmful desires which plunge men into Rune and destruction For the Love of Money is the root of all sort of evil and some by longing for it have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many a Pang so wealth having stuff is never the goal the goal is always the wisdom of God that’s the treasure that’s what we ought to be seeking after and so there’s another thing that comes promised that comes in to young people and it’s found in verse number 14 and that’s for having to have camaraderie and security with with others uh throwing your lot with us it says in verse 14 we shall all have one purse see to be part of a group or even a gang just have a sense of belonging is a very very powerful thing for a young person everybody wants to belong to be accepted to be part of something and young people are often willing to give up wisdom to receive that camaraderie they’re willing to give up morals they’re willing to give up convictions they’re willing to violate their conscience in order to belong hey this group accepted me no one’s accepted me like this group and they’re attracted to that and they’re saying they’re going to receive me and we’re going to have good friendship and all those things and they lay aside what they know to be right for that relationship and for that security but wisdom remember there’s another voice always speaking wisdom’s always speaking it’s always crying it’s always speaking out in fact if you look at verse number 20 look what it says of chapter one wisdom shouts in the streets she loves lists lifts her voice into square it’s it’s yelling to them what is it yelling in verse 15 to 19 of chapter one in the midst of many voices you can still hear the voice of wisdom and what is it yelling stay stand clear steer clear from that group don’t go with that group in verse number 15 it says my son do not walk in the way with them keep your feet from their path don’t let these competing voices muffle the call of wisdom don’t let these other people influence you in the wrong way so for the young man or young lady on their way to adulthood the warning is about Folly of unjust gain and the seduction of the sinner’s speech so watch out for people whose words are designed to entice to entrap to entrap people with schemes that promise quick Thrills and quick wealth and quick friendship without all the qualities that go with those things so the initial office offers sounds good but you are never told the details you’re never told the beginning from the end it’s the only when you get locked in only when you start walking on their path and get trapped you start figuring out this is evil this is wicked I didn’t sign up for this how do I get out of it sometimes it’s too late to get out of it see only when you’re locked in and trap do you figure out that it’s evil Wicked and a dangerous scheme that is leading you down to a horrible conclusion so if you take the warning of wisdom you will see the net set for you and you’ll not be entrapped by that net and you’ll quickly discern the end of the matter and ultimately resist the temptation and avoid the person and the scheme now there’s three reasons given in scripture to steer clearer of those people and in the first one in verse 16 is this for their feet run to evil and they hastened to shed blood so why should you steer clear because there is something wrong with what they’re trying to get you to do don’t you see that look beyond what they’re saying look at their life look who they’re associated with look what they’re doing look what they’re saying look what they’re promising they cannot they cannot fulfill their promises and so it’s the wisdom is saying listen it’s wrong don’t you see that it’s wrong because it goes against everything wisdom has taught so wisdom exposes the real intentions of these matters and these sinners they are in the fast lane to do evil and to accomplish and to acquire what they want robbing killing is not out of the question they have no conscience only flesh their flesh drives their desires so it’s why shouldn’t the everybody steer clear because it’s wrong secondly why should they steer clear verse 17 and 18 because it’s foolish right it wisdom exposes the bumpy road of the foolish the naive and the scoffer it says in verse number 17 it says indeed it is useless to spread the net in the eye in the eyes of any bird but they lie and wait for their own blood and they Ambush their own lives now that analogy is a little puzzling it doesn’t mean that the spreading of the net or doesn’t mean that the spreading of the net in the sight of birds is a a fruitless exercise for the hunter since the bird will avoid it and say it secondly a fruitless sign of danger to the birds since they will swoop down into it regardless or if it’s connected to verse 18 the meaning would be this that the hunter sets his trap for the birds in secret but gets himself his own trap it says but they lie and wait for their own blood and they Ambush their own lives the only wisdom could see that the fool can’t see that and the reason why the fool can’t see that is because of the characteristic of a fool What is the characteristic of a fool look if you look at chapter 1 verse 22 it says this a fool hates knowledge Psalm tells us chapter 14 the fullest said in their hearts there is no God they are corrupt they are have committed abominable Deeds there is no one who does good it says in Proverbs 12 15 the way of a fool is right in his own eyes but a wise man is he who listens to counsel or it could be the naive one in chapter 1 verse 22 how long o naive ones will you love simplicity see the naive person in other passages in Proverbs like chapter 7 verse 7 and I saw among the naive and I discerned among the youths a young man lacking sense and then chapter 14 the naive believes everything but the prudent man considers his steps Proverbs 22 verse 3 the pro The Prudent sees the evil and hides himself with the naive go on and are punished for it see the naive is the person see the so the Bible doesn’t want you to be foolish it doesn’t want you to be naive and specifically doesn’t want you to be a scoffer because who was a scoffer chapter 1 verse 22. a scoffer Delights themselves in scoffing and fools hate knowledge so see they in other words a scoffer is a mocker there we would some would consider them a free thinker they’re all mouth quick and sharp with the tongue they get great satisfaction by cutting people to shreds with their tongues and they do what they feel and they live for themselves they display open contempt for wisdom for godliness for instruction and any of those things in fact the Bible goes on to tell us in Proverbs listen if you try to correct a scoffer you’re asking for trouble this is what it says he who corrects the scoffer gets Dishonored for himself and he reproves a wicked man gets insults for himself so a scoffer really is a person that has gone so far away from anything that is wise that they’re just a kind of an island unto themselves they do what they want when they want to whom they want and they have no remorse no conviction nothing see anyone who tries to correct the scoffer is asking for trouble for it says in chapter 9 verse 8 do not reprove a scoffer lest he hates you reprove a wise man and he will love you so even if you try to to reprove a scoffer they will actually come against you so here it’s this is what it says in Proverbs 13 1 a wise son accepts his father’s discipline but a scoffer does not listen to rebuke so this is what it is a scoffer scoffers are prideful they’re belligerent people who listen to No One and will get even with anyone who tries to cross them now you have met you may have met people like that you may work with people like that but you don’t want to be like that you want to be far from that and why else should the path of the fool and the naive and the scoffer be avoided because of verse number 19 of chapter one so are the ways of everyone who gains by violence it takes away the life of its possessors in other words it’s destructive it realistically views the fate of the unwise they’re going to the down the path of either being incarcerated or being killed so the join in their company is also to join in their fate instead of a long life it could be Unexpected death so we’re always presented with the two ways the narrow and the broad way God’s way and every other way wisdom says choose to go God’s way and shun the rest stay away from those who SE alienation of people caused death by greed and hatred and Power Beware of the enticements which have the potential to take your life and to Rob your soul of eternal life don’t let these lure you away from the path of wisdom now if a person remains a fool or naive or a scoffer it’s their own fault in fact it is living a disobedient life a life against the wishes of the Lord and why is it their own fault well it’s not it’s not like anybody didn’t tell them what was right and wrong in fact as it says here wisdom shouts in the streets wisdom has been available wisdom cries out in verse number 21 of chapter one at the entrance of the gates of the city she utters her sayings and what does she utter she utters shouts of wisdom don’t go that way don’t go with them don’t get into that car don’t date that unbeliever don’t move in with that person without being married don’t go with that foolish person that naive person or that scoffing person don’t go that way steer clear from people like that listen to what they say evaluate what they say and stay away don’t walk on their path don’t let it get that far so hanging with a fool hanging with the naive hanging with the scoffer and calling them your friends as if they had some virtue to offer you is just a lie you’re believing a lie they only have selfishness and anger and hate and trouble to offer you but they’re not going to tell you that you’re not going to influence anybody on your side to tell them listen if you come with me I’m going to teach you how to be selfish I’m going to teach you how to be angry I want to teach you how to hate people I’m going to teach you trouble so if one continues with them they will become like them they will end up like them but the wise person has something to offer all that they come in contact with what do they have to offer they have to offer wisdom and they have they have to offer the wisdom of the Gospel of Jesus Christ which is the right path in fact the wisdom that is from above leads to a person this is not just theoretical understanding and knowledge this leads to a person in which you can have a relationship with see the wisdom that comes from above leads to Salvation and God’s answer to our sin problem and that is Jesus Christ so here’s a young person here’s any person who gets introduced to the word of God and now they have two voices they have the voice of wisdom that can evaluate all the other voices and make a decision before acting on anything before getting involved with anything they can evaluate the beginning the middle and the end and then they can make the right choice which will be a choice that benefits them and everyone else and see that’s when they start looking like they are beautiful in their skill of living is when they start saying wow that person did not go with that person and that’s the coolest person on campus that’s like odd why didn’t they do that why didn’t they go with them everybody wants to hang out with them but they decided not to and then you’ll find out later the reason why they decided not to is because they’re wise people they want to follow what the Lord says they want to do what is honoring before God they want to listen to the their mother and father that gave them wisdom so if you continue to listen to wisdom and apply God’s wisdom to your life then what what does the Bible say about that well look what it says in chapter two look at verse number one through four it says my son no notice that word if right usually when there’s a word if you’re going to look for the word then if this happened then this happens right if you do this then that’s going to take place right so that’s what you look for right well let’s see if that happens here verse number one my son if you receive my words and treasure my Commandments within you verse 3 for if you cry for discernment lift your voice for understanding verse 4 if you seek her as silver and search for her as for Hidden Treasures well in verse 5 then you will discern the fear of the Lord so see when the voice of wisdom Rings louder and more consistently in your heart it will drowned out the other voices that compete for your attention and then you will know what you will know that you will know actually you will get discernment then you will discern what the fear of the Lord isn’t that why we’re here on Earth that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge right we’re here to find out what God has to say The God Who created us in His image and that image was shattered by sin God is still calling out and he wants to give discernment to people he wants to give them his knowledge you will discern God’s way and remember the basic meaning of discern it means to separate and divide in order to choose the right way and spurn every other way one person gave the illustration once that to discern something is in uh ancient times when they used to sell pottery often charlatans would take the pottery that had cracks in it and fill in the cracks with wax and then paint them over like they look and as soon as you put a hot liquid in it it’ll leak out that the wise person will learn to take the pottery and hold it up to the light and to see if that part Pottery was worthy that’s discernment hold it everything up to the light so what so then you then you will walk on the path of wisdom and you will discern but there’s something else that it says here in verse number five it says that you will discover y discover the knowledge of God verse 5.

everybody wants to discover you want excitement discovered the knowledge of God that’s exciting to know what other people don’t know you find right in the Bible and believe me you get in the word of God you get pulled into the word of God you get the mind of Christ your life is different you think differently your whole world view changes as the word of God transforms your mind and gives you the mind of Christ you discover the knowledge of God the emphasis In this passage is found right here the wisdom is a gift from God Chapter 2 Verse 6 for the Lord gives wisdom from his mouth come knowledge and understanding that wisdom is a Divine gift and there’s a mystery behind wisdom the wisdom teaching here and it is one must individually search and seek for wisdom and keep in mind that it is a gift of God see God alone has the Divine prerogative to dispense it to anyone he would like and his loyal followers Remain the recipients of divine wisdom it’ll never be known by the full because fools hate knowledge it’ll never be known by the naive because then a naive loves simplicity don’t complicate things with the facts all right scoffer because they Delight in their scoffing will never know this wisdom see the search for wisdom brings one into a right relationship with God because if we’re going to discern the fear of the Lord and if we’re going to discover the knowledge of God where do you think that’s going to lead that’s going to lead a person into a relationship with God Covenant relationship with him where they find out who God is and what God has done and how God responds to people and what God has accomplished on their behalf see so search for wisdom brings one into a right relationship with God and according to Richard Clifford the search does not end with the Seeker grasping it just as wisdom but in Yahweh bestowing it upon them knowing in other words knowing the one who actually gives the wisdom and what happens that you will not only know the source of wisdom but you will also know the value and the path of wisdom verse number nine of chapter one it says or excuse me verse number two chapter nine it says then you will discern righteousness and Justice and equity in every course so wisdom will be more treasured than any other precious object or person on this side of Eternity in fact if a person who spurns wisdom gets to the place where they in their Calamity that they want to call on the Lord if you notice in chapter 1 verse number 28 it says in verse 27 says when your dread comes like a storm and your Calamity comes like a whirlwind when distress and anguish come upon you then they will call on me but I will not answer they will seek me diligently but they will not find me why because they hated knowledge and they did not choose the fear of the Lord unfortunately that will be the case of many people they did not want God’s knowledge so the person who wants God’s knowledge and grows in God’s knowledge and uses God’s knowledge the person will know that they are pursuing the source and the embodiment of wisdom which is God himself along with that God will bestow as a gift shrewdness to keep safe on the road to light Road of life and then even to enjoy life God doesn’t want to uh keep from us enjoyment he wants us to enjoy life so those who fail become dropouts on the road to the wisdom that God gives does not mean that they’re lacking in intellectual ability or physical strength it means that they do not fear God nor take his word seriously that’s what it means so they do not pursue wisdom neither do they want it anymore but look what it says in verse number 33 of chapter 1. it says but he who listens to me shall live securely and will be at ease from The Dread of evil so see the Lord is saying here listen you make your choice make your choice young people how do you want to live when you leave home and you go off to college you go off the trade school or you go off to some job you go move away from your parents how are you going to live what choices are you going to make what voices are you going to listen to are you just going to lay aside all that stuff that you learned in Sunday school all that stuff you learned from your parents all that stuff that you learn in the preaching are you just going to throw it away as if it was nothing or you’re going to leave and saying you know what I got a treasure and God gave me the treasure you know what the treasure is it’s wisdom he’s given me the ability to know the difference between right and wrong but not only just right and wrong his way and every way that’s going to be introduced to me I know that when I’m walking out those doors and I’m leaving my parents I know in my heart what I want so when those voices come strongly and they tried to grab and get your attention pull out your wisdom pull out the word of God and get from your treasure the needed information to evaluate this person this event this thing and decide before you even say yes or no whether you’re going to do it or not because that’s what wisdom does that’s what a wise person does and when you do that you will know a couple things you’ll know number one that you’re not a fool you’ll know number two that you’re not naive and you know number three you’ll never be a scoffer and you’ll know you know number four I have a relationship with Jesus Christ my Lord and Savior and he’s the one I want to live for and so when those voices and those people come to me I’m going to tell them the Gospel of Jesus Christ because I know that’s what they need I know that is the emptiness in their heart I know that’s what they’ve been seeking for and I’m going to tell them about Christ and you know what Christ is going to save some people he’s going to bring some people under conviction by your life by your words but you have to make that choice now you got to make that choice now God’s wisdom is incredible it’s powerful it’s a treasure and it’s a beautiful wreath upon your head and ornaments upon your neck it has a skill and a beauty to it that’s attractive you know what you want to get hired by somebody one of the things that people hire one of the things that all bosses and Company are looking for they’re looking for people who have integrity they have they have they’re looking for people who are wise and if you have integrity and you are wise there’s no honorable employer that would say no to you and keep you because they’re you’re going to get evaluated against everyone else and they’re going to say listen this person may not be the brightest or the sharpest but they have integrity and they they are wise that’s the person I want because when I turn my back I can trust them when I turn my back they will do the right thing when I turn my back ultimately they will save my company and they will make me money see that’s the kind of person people want in fact when the Lord calls pastors to churches he doesn’t say there listen you have to have a seminary degree you have to have a doctor you have to have all these things he says you have to have a character a hero of the character qualities right what is he saying he says because those characters qualities come from inside your heart God gives them to you and develops them in your life those are the kind of people we want pastoring our churches amen so let’s be wise fathers let’s be wise mothers and young people please you cannot say after today you have not heard it and when you are tempted to do other something that you know is wrong and is evil and go with a person that you know is trouble make a decision beforehand and don’t do it and you’ll be glad for it let’s pray Lord thank you again for your word thank you for this time together I pray Lord you will continue to give us this desire for your wisdom give us this desire for the word of God that grows us and makes us strong and makes us Discerning and makes us wise and gives us a love for you that nothing else can gives us a love for people that nothing else can but also gives us the message that we know people need no matter where they came from what they grew up in or where they’re going they need to hear the message about Jesus Christ because that is your Plan of Salvation thank you Lord for all that you’ll do in our life and I pray this in Christ’s name amen

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