Proverbs: Chapters 1 - 31

[00:00:00] Speaker A: First off, welcome. And also we have been journeying through the Old Testament, doing a survey of the Old Testament. And every week so far, since the beginning of the year, has really just been looking at many times, almost one whole or a whole book at a time. And today we're looking at the book of Proverbs, surveying it, seeing what we find here as we really come to understand what the Old Testament has to say. Many times it can be a stopping point for us. We can start off in Genesis and read some of the first days of creation. And then we hit Exodus and the beginning starts off okay, and then we start getting to the laws and more laws and more laws and more laws, and then we stop. And so really in this series, as you can see on the screen, exploring the Old Testament and discovering the Savior. And at the end of your outline, you can see the Savior. We're going to see parts in each of the books where the Savior comes to the surface. Now, the last few weeks we have been, if you go to, I think the next slide is kind of an overlay of the Old Testament books, Robert. The next slide there has really the books. We're in that square, that red square that we're in Proverbs. The last few weeks we've looked at, or a few weeks ago, we looked at Job, and Job really tells us how to suffer and how to doubt. Psalms, which we looked at last week, the whole book of Psalms. How many chapters are in the book of Psalms? 150. How many are in Proverbs? 31. All right, like I said, we have to do our pop quiz every once in a while. And today, so we're only doing 31 chapters, which is way less than 150. So we'll be out of here in no time. Now, Psalms tells us how to worship. Proverbs tells us how to grow in wisdom. It answers questions like how do we do normal life? What does friendship look like? And family? How do we do work and relationships, marriage? What does it look like to follow Jesus? Well, in the mundane life, if you will, and does God really care how you and I do the mundane things in our lives? Proverbs is not so much a list of rules to live by, but it is principles for us to thrive. And that's an important difference as we read through this book. It's not a bunch of rules, it's principles. And we're going to talk a little bit more about that as we dive into the book. So hopefully your Bibles are open to the book of what Proverbs chapter where let's pray and then we will dive into this. Father in heaven, we are grateful that we can worship you as the God of our salvation. As we just sung moments ago, reminding ourselves that there are times that doubts may rise to the surface. Struggles happen in our life and you are the God we continue to run back to. You are the hope, the light, if you will, we can hold to in the midst of darkness around us as we examine this book. A book full of your wisdom. Not just good ideas from people, but your truth. Pray, Lord, that you would open our hearts and our minds to see that. And not just to see it, not just to understand it, but to see where we need to apply it. We need to live out and live in the wisdom that you put before us. I ask that the things that I say, Lord, would be just again rooted in you and your heart. And that all those here today, we just listen to you, to the work that your spirit wants to do in us. In Jesus name, amen. Finish these proverbs or quotes. Cleanliness is next to practice makes better late than a picture is worth. Actions speak louder than and if any of you are left out on any of this, just listen to, I guess everyone else. The more the God helps those who which by the way, is not from the Bible. Just clarifying. None of these are Absence makes the heart grow harder. A jack of all trades is a master of. A journey of a thousand miles begins with a. Unless of course, you're a fish. Sorry. All is well that. And in this season, maybe you know, a chunk of people that are sick right now. An apple a day keeps. Now there's something catchy, right, about those that just kind of lock in our minds. We know that as we sing songs, it helps us, like remember the lyrics in a unique kind of way. These sorts of sayings do that too, right? Like you all, you knew how to finish those very well. Now, just to clarify, none of those are from the Bible. Just again, to say that very clearly, some of those may have truths that we find in the scriptures, but none of those are verses. There's not a chapter and verses for those. But today we're going to examine a book that is full of wisdom that is God's wisdom, not just ours. Often, as we do in each of these, I give you kind of a snapshot, a summary of the book. And so here's the snapshot for you for the book of Proverbs. And this is more than you can write down. If you want to take a picture of it or something you can. What's the snapshot? What's the summary of the book that we're looking at? Proverbs thoughtfully leads the reader, you and I and many others in a seminar on how to live. It guides seekers through the various stages of attaining wisdom, always identifying dangers, yet never making the process seem impossible for us. But however difficult the task may be, the wise, which is an option for us, for you and I, the wise will determine how to learn to fear God, to walk in humility, to accept discipline, and as a result, to develop character. And in reality, that's the heart of much of Proverbs is hoping that we will develop character. As I said earlier, it's not a list of rules, but rather it's helping us to grow in our relationship with God, in principles that we are living our lives in. Other paths will seem easier, but only God's path will yield true and lasting benefits in our lives. Now, a few things about Proverbs and then we'll look at the basics, which you can see on your outline. The Hebrew Bible says this about Proverbs. It's the Proverbs of Solomon. So who is the primary author of the book of Proverbs? Anybody? Solomon. So some of you are already jumping ahead to the basics, which don't do that on the screen yet. And you can write in. The author is Solomon as well. But what is wisdom? Because that's what this whole book is about. If you like to write things down, I'll say various things you can write down, one of which is this. Wisdom is knowledge applied. Very simply, wisdom is knowledge applied. For example, knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is knowing not to put it in a fruit smoothie, right? Now, maybe some of you do that. Good for you, I guess. But that's your own thing. A Spanish proverb says this about a proverb. A proverb is a short sentence based on long experience. And I really like that. A short sentence based on long experience or often the experience of other people. Now, Proverbs admits that wisdom is elusive at times, but it is worth each person pursuing it because the end result is worth our effort. So let's look at the basics on your outline. You could write this in the author, the time frame that this was written, and then the themes that we're going to see. And I put this on the screen on one slide. If you like to write things down, you can do that first. Kings 4:29 31 tells us that King Solomon was the wisest person that ever what lived and he says that he spoke over 3,000 proverbs. The Book of Proverbs gives us about 500 proverbs from Solomon. And this was compiled, most likely, if you remember, about the story of Solomon's life. Most likely these proverbs were compiled in the first half of his life. Because you remember what happened in the second half of Solomon's life. He strayed away from who? God. He started doing his own thing in many ways. And so you can see that time frame, most likely that first 20 or so years of his reign. He had a 40 year reign. So that first 20 years is what you can see there. There are other people who wrote some of these proverbs. Not all of the proverbs in the Book of Proverbs are from Solomon. Some of them you can read. When you read through the Book of Proverbs, it says that they were proverbs from other people. Like sayings of the wise is a term that's used. But Solomon is the one who compiled all that through the guiding of the Holy Spirit. And in the last two chapters of Proverbs, we'll look at the tail end of your outline is written by a guy named Agur, and in chapter 30, and then chapter 31 is by a guy named King Lemuel. Can you say Lemuel? Any of you know someone named Lemuel? Really nice. Hey, I was not expecting that. And then you can see the time frame there that this was written. King Hezekiah also took a lot of the sayings of Solomon. He was one of the kings of Judah. We've talked about Israel in the northern area and then Judah in the southern part of the country. And King Hezekiah reigned after King Solomon. After the nation split, he took a bunch of the Proverbs of Solomon, the sayings of Solomon, and also compiled them into the book that we're looking at as well. And then as we look at the themes, you can write some of those in if you like, if you have space on your outline. We see things like wisdom and wickedness, talked about character and creation, money and marriage, pride and purity and so on, sin and speech. The list kind of goes on and on. There's three big things, if you like to write things down. There's three big things that we see in Proverbs. Proverbs tells us how to think deeply and act wisely in regards to our relationship with God, our relationship with others, and our relationship with ourselves. And there's two big themes that we see in the Book of Proverbs. One, obviously, is this tension between wisdom and folly. Can someone say wisdom and. And what? Folly. There's this tension that we see throughout the entire book that the author's calling us to wisdom, but says there's lots of people doing things that are foolish, and then tells us, here's the benefits of wisdom and here's the results of walking in foolishness or of folly, and then builds this case for us for why wisdom is better than folly. Folly may be easier, but wisdom is better. Before we get into the outline, there's two more things that we need to know because this is such a unique book. Two words. Both start with the letter P. Again, if you like to write things down. The first word is this, principles. The second word is parallelism. And the question we're going to answer is, how do you read this book? How do you read it? Principles and parallelism you need to have in your mind when you read through the book of Proverbs. Firstly, principles. Let's talk about that for a second. Principles is this. Proverbs is full of principles, not promises. Principles, not promises. And we see it, for example, in places like chapter 10, verse 27, that says the fear of the Lord prolongs your life. Now, we know that is a principle, not a promise. Because if somebody dies when they're young, does it mean that they didn't fear God? No, but it's teaching us if you're fearing God, if you're walking in the ways of the Lord, you're hopefully making wise decisions. And that's going to, what, prolong your life. Chapter 10, verse 3, says, the Lord does not let the righteous go hungry. Are there people who follow Jesus who are hungry? Right. So principle, though, tells us the righteous, those who are going to do the right thing, who are going to work hard, who are going to provide for themselves, who are going to be intentional about their actions, are most likely the opposite of someone who's lazy. Are not going to go hungry. A verse that many parents, as we talk about parenting, goes in chapter 22, verse 6, train up a child in the way that he should, and when he is old, he will not. Well, is it true that sometimes there are parents that teach their kids in the way of Jesus and they don't follow Jesus when they're adults? Principle, not promise. Now, that's telling us it's important to walk in this principle, because if you teach them in the way of the Lord, the likelihood or the probability is higher that they're gonna walk with the Lord when they are adults. So principles was the first word. The second word I said was parallelism. And really briefly, as we read through a chunk of the Proverbs, parallelism rises to the surface. And what does that mean? It means this is placing two truths next to each other for the purpose of helping to expand on whatever truth this is in the second, whatever phrasing that goes on here or to complete this phrase. So it'll say this, and then it'll say something else that sounds really similar to the first one. But all the author's doing is helping to explain the other phrase. Does that make sense? So I say this, but that may not make a lot of sense. So I say something very similar to help expound on the second truth. So as you read through Proverbs, you're going to see things that are like, wait, didn't you already just say that a second ago? The answer is what? Yes, because we're trying to help you understand whatever the point is in this particular teaching or piece of wisdom. All right, you can write this in point one, on your outline, in the outline portion, the option for wisdom. And this is in chapters one through nine. So, like I said, we're surveying. We're not going to read through all of this. But. But what does this first section teach us? Well, as some of you might know if you look in your Bibles, there, the Proverbs of verse 1, chapter 1 says this. The proverbs of who, Solomon. I'm looking in my Bible in verse one, the son of who, King of Israel. If you shift down to verse eight, it starts off and says something. It says this, hear. That is, listen, hear, my son, to your father's what instruction and forsake, not your mother's what teaching. And so here's what we start. The whole first nine chapters is all about one thing. It's realizing that there is actually a group of 10 different speeches from a father to his son, saying, listen up, I have a lot of experience around something and wisdom that I want to pass on to you. It's very important that you hear the wisdom that I have because I want your life to be good. I care about the benefits of your life. So there's 10 big speeches that the father gives to his son in these first nine chapters. I summarize that down into five for us, because five seems a little bit more manageable than how many? 10. So put that on the screen. These five big lessons that we see in these first nine, 10 chapters or so of Proverbs. You can write this down in your outline if you would like to. Let's just talk a little bit about them for a moment. You can look in your Bibles and you'll see this rise to the surface, starting in the tail end of chapter one and going on from there. Firstly, what does the Father teach? Teaches this. Watch out for the enticement of sinners, in other words. And he goes on and on and on. Teaches basically his way of saying, there are wolves in the world. Now, some of us like to believe that basically everybody's good. Is that true? And that's what the author wants to teach his son. You have to watch out. There are people out there who are only in it for themselves, who don't care if they hurt you in the process of getting what they want. Don't be naive. Keep alert. Watch out for the enticement of sinners. People who are trying to show you that something may look really shiny over here and not showing you how dangerous something else may be on the back end of that. The second thing that he teaches is this. The Lord is the source of wisdom. And if you live in the fear of the Lord, he will grant you great wisdom. He will protect you, give you peace and guide you. Now I talked about two sides of this tension, right? There was wisdom and what, what's the other side? Folly or foolishness, Right? So wisdom and foolishness. Now here's what the Father does. He personifies wisdom and he personifies foolishness. And he calls them this. Lady Wisdom and Lady Folly. Can you say that with me? Lady Wisdom and Lady Folly. So he brings really a person to life in the midst of this wisdom folly kind of back and forth. And he says, if you follow Lady Wisdom, here's all the things that she will give you. And if you follow Lady Folly, here's all the things that she will give you. And he's really making this case to his son. Who do you want to follow? Who do you want to follow? The third thing that we see on, you can see this on the screen is this. He says, trust in. Go back. Trust in God. That's right. Three, five and six. Trust in the Lord with all of your heart. Lean not on your own. Now this flies in the face of every Disney movie you have watched that says to follow your right. And so thousands of years ago, Solomon is saying no to nevermind. Solomon is saying the message that Disney, if you will, throws out there, follow your heart. What are you feeling? Just do it that way. Whatever makes you happy, stand against that. Trust in not yourself, not in all the things that you think are just right and good for you, but rather trust in the Lord above everything else and lean not on just the things that make sense to you, but rather acknowledge the ways of the Lord. In short, don't follow your heart. Fourthly, sexual purity matters. Now, seemingly this might seem ironic coming from who? Solomon. Right, Who? Many of us are like, wait a minute, he definitely didn't do the things that he said. In reality, look at the tail end of Solomon's life. Much of the things that he tells us about here, about wise living, he does not do in the last half of his life, including this very thing he spends. If you read through Proverbs, there is a ton written about sexual purity. Talking about fighting for sexual purity, guarding yourself, attacks will come. Be ready. Discipline yourself. God is watching in this area. Enjoy sexuality in the context of marriage, not outside of marriage. And when you don't follow God's way in this, here's this Lady Folly. Here's what's going to happen. He's very, very clear about this to his son, who's listening, if you will, to this speech. And then lastly, watch your mouth. How many of you have said that to somebody else? When you're really mad at him, watch your mouth. Think deeply. Be someone of integrity. Work hard, flee from debt, and many, many more warnings against adultery and sexual sins. And so here's what he's doing in these first nine chapters. He's saying, here's Lady Wisdom. Here's lady what Folly. Here's what's going to happen if you follow one versus the other. I've laid it all out for you. And in the midst of all of that, he says, God is the one who leads towards wisdom. Hold on to him. Hold on to him. And that's why throughout all of this, it says this over and over through Proverbs, especially In these first nine or 10 chapters, it says, fear the Lord. Can you say that? Fear the Lord. Over and over and over again it says, fear the Lord. Fear the Lord. Fear the Lord. Why does it say that? Because if you don't, you're not following Lady Wisdom. You're following Lady Folly and all of the things that come with it. What does it mean to fear the Lord? It means admitting that God is the one who possesses perfect wisdom. It means respecting him, the Lord, Yahweh above all else. It means choosing humility. So what about us today? What do you and I do with that? We can read that and say, okay, so there's this call for wisdom. How do I. Here's the Point on your screen that you see for point one is the option for wisdom. How do I pick wisdom over folly? What does it look like for me to choose the way of the wise, if you will, rather than the way of the foolish? What does that look like? Maybe write this down somewhere. Wise people learn from their mistakes. Wiser people learn from the mistakes of others. Think about that in your own life. Hopefully you're someone who has learned from your own mistakes. Someone who is even wiser says, I want to learn from the mistakes of other people. Now, how can you do that? Many ways? I am one. As a proponent of reading books, there's a lot of people that have written a lot of really, really great books, that there's podcasts out there, there's studying that you can do that you can say, I'm gonna continue to learn from other people because wise people learn from their mistakes. Wiser people what, learn from the mistakes of others. If you see other people in your life that you're like, they're a really wise person, realize this. Wise people didn't get there by accident. They didn't get there by accident. So don't just admire them. Figure out what led them to the place that they are. [00:20:43] Speaker B: Are. [00:20:44] Speaker A: The option is before us. That's what the author is telling us. The results can be really, really good if you do it God's way. Which then leads me to ask this question, and maybe you as well. Why would anyone pick the other way, right? If you see all the good things this way and all the bad things this way, why would anybody pick this way over this way, right? You think about that. Here's maybe a very short answer. Because this way is easier. The way of folly, the way of foolishness, is easier than the way of wisdom. Jesus makes this point, the way that leads to death is wide. The road that leads to death, the road that leads to life is what, narrow? So we have this setting now. We have point one. This is this option that the author lays before us. And now he's hoping that we're going to choose the way of wisdom, not the way of what. And so, because that assumption is now with us, we move on to point 2. What are these words of wisdom? What is the wisdom that the author now wants to give us? Or the father to his son? He wants to give his son. There are many of them you can write in point two on your outline. Is this just the words of wisdom? The words of wisdom. And this is in chapters 10 through 29. Now, if you look in your Bibles, A lot of the time when you're reading through scripture, you see, like, different headings. When you read through, like in my Bible, I'll see different headings. Like another chapter is another heading and another heading. If you read through chapters 10 through 29 of Proverbs, you will see almost no headings. And when you do see headings, it says this. More words of the wise. More words of the wise. Ooh, look, another heading. More words of the wise. So literally, like these chapters, these 20 chapters are just words of wisdom that cover things like family and money and sex and marriage and work and neighborhood, your friendship and alcohol and debt. And the list kind of goes on and on and on. But why take my word for it? Let's look at what Proverbs tells us. What are the words of wisdom? So I put on the screen a bunch of different proverbs, and all we're going to do for the next few minutes is just look at them and I'll just say something really briefly about them. Because if we're in Proverbs, we need to experience these proverbs. Amen. So let's look at some of them. I'll read it out loud as well. And then we'll just kind of. I'll just say something very briefly about them. Firstly from chapter 10, verse 4. A slack hand causes poverty, but the hand of the diligent makes rich. Here's what this is teaching us. If you're lazy, don't expect to be rich. Chapter 10, verse 19. When words are many, transgressions are not lacking. But whoever restrains his lips and is prudent. When you talk more, it's more likely you'll dig yourself in a hole. Sometimes it's good to keep your mouth shut. It's very practical, right? Chapter 12, verse 15. The way of the fool is right in his own eyes. But a wise man listens to advice. What is this telling us? Fools don't ask for advice. Be wise. Ask for chapter 12, verse 18. There is a way whose rash. There is one whose rash words are like sword thrusts. But the tongue of the wise brings healing. What is this telling us? Your words have incredible power to damage or to heal. Think, think and then think again before you speak. Especially when it's a very emotional situation. Chapter 13, verse 24. Whoever spares the rod hates his son. But whoever loves him is diligent. Discipline him. Some of you are concerned about what I'm going to say right now. Here's what I'll say. Discipline and love go hand in hand. Chapter 15, verse 1. A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger. What do we learn from that? Don't be surprised when your harsh words make other people angry. Very simply. Chapter 16, verse 3. Commit your work to the Lord and your plans will be established. Do things God's way if you want to find success. Chapter 16, verse 18. Pride goes before destruction, but a haughty spirit and a haughty spirit before a fall. What is this teaching us? It's pretty self explanatory. Thus examine yourself regularly, seeking to destroy pride as it comes to the surface. Chapter 18, verse 21. Death and life are in the power of the tongue. And those who love it will eat its fruit. Again we have words being told. Very significant. Great power your words have. Chapter 22, verse 6. Train up a child in the way he should go, and even when he is old he will not. What right? We said this earlier. What does this tell us? Something important. I'll spend a second longer. Here is your child. Children. From what many studies have shown, your child children believe what they believe by the age of 12 or 13 is often what they will believe about morality and about God for the rest of their life. Your child's children's mental, spiritual and emotional formation will impact the rest of their life. In other words, don't negate the things that we do to help form mentally, spiritually and emotionally children. Because that will impact the rest of their life. Chapter 22, verse 7. The rich rules over the poor and the borrower is slave to the lender. Beware, debt is a slave, master, not a friend. Chapter 23. We're moving right on. Right through this whole thing. Chapter 23, verses 31. Really? 29 through 35 speak a lot about this. I put 31 and 32 on the screen. Do not look at wine when it is red, when it sparkles in the cup and goes down smoothly, its end will bite like a serpent and sting like an adder. What is this telling us? Alcohol can be dangerous. Some of you might know that from experience. Chapter 26 and following, verses 4 and 5, and this is the last one, I promise. Verses 4 and 5 says this. Answer not a fool according to his folly, lest you be like him yourself. Remember parallelism. Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own eyes. What is this telling us? Sometimes someone needs to be corrected when they are wrong about something. And sometimes it's not worth your time to keep correcting someone when they are wrong about something. And it takes Wisdom to know the difference. And you all have been there, haven't you? When you're like, I have told them 100 times. Should I tell them 101 times? And somebody's like, no, I don't think it's going to make a difference. And there's other times that you're like, they're wrong. Someone needs to say something to them. And you step in and you say something. It takes wisdom to know the difference. Now we can look at all of these things that we just read and many, many more in the book of Problems and nod our head and say, yeah, that's really, really good. That's information. To practice these things is actually the practice of wisdom. So it doesn't do us any good to be able to read this, nod our heads and go, that's cool. The difference is when we say, I'm gonna do that now. I'm gonna practice these things. I'm gonna think, think, think, think, think, and think some more before I say something. When I'm angry, I'm gonna watch what I say. When I think about how I handle money, I'm gonna look to God's word, not just say, that's cool for other people. So the author now has laid before us in the first portion in chapters one through nine, the option for wisdom, Lady Wisdom, Lady Folly, and made a case that Lady Wisdom is better them God's way over Folly. And if we do it God's way, there's many blessings that follow. Then point two on your outline, you had like 20 chapters of here's so much wisdom for you. I hope you're gonna take it because it's gonna be beneficial for your life. And then point three on your outline, the last two chapters is the practice of wisdom. And that's all the author has done, has made a case for following wisdom, walking in wisdom, given us the wisdom, and said, now here's what it looks like to actually practice wise living. And the last two chapters gives us two people that talk about, if you will, the practice of wisdom. So if you have your Bible still open, flip over to chapter 30 and we finally get another heading. It's been 20 chapters of no really difference in a heading in your Bible. Chapter 30 starts us off and says the words of a guru. I don't think there's anybody here named that son of Jakin the oracle. And then this chapter, really, we don't know anything else about this guy. This chapter literally walks us through a model reader of Proverbs. And the writer starts off and says, Basically, I'm tired. I don't know what to do. And then, wait a minute. God's out there. I should check in with God about stuff. And then, whoa. God is someone that I should listen to. And he has wisdom. And if I do things God's way, then. Then my life is better. Doesn't that sound like what Proverbs is supposed to be about? That's exactly what we see in chapter 30. And then he goes on further into chapter 30, and he says this. He says, I see that God is full of wisdom and full of power, and look at the creation in the world around us. That is simply amazing. And God is someone who is worth following. And also he says something fascinating, which I love. Right in the middle of this chapter. He says this. He asks God, he says, God, please, please provide for me, because when you provide for me, I'll continue to trust in you. But also, don't provide for me too much because I don't want to be so independent and think I don't need you. I don't want to be so successful and think that you're not needed in my life, which is so wide, right? He realizes, I don't want to be someone who's desolate because. Because I might just ignore God. And I don't want to be someone who's so wealthy and think that I don't need God. I want to be somewhere right in the middle. Balance, Right? And that is wisdom. Wisdom helps us know how to do balance well. And then we have chapter 31, right? The infamous chapter 31 of Proverbs. Now, Lemuel, we know he's a king. We know he has a wise mother. His name means devoted to God. [00:31:04] Speaker B: And. [00:31:04] Speaker A: And in this portion, he's talking about the practice of wisdom, particularly in two areas, one of which probably none of you knew. And the second is the Proverbs 31 woman the first is, this describes a wise leader. That's the first part of this chapter. And the second part of the chapter is. It describes this wise woman. Many of us skip over the wise leader part. I don't know why, but we skip over in, like this, Proverbs 31. Woman what does it tell us about the wise leader? Look in your Bibles. You can see verses 1 through 9. Tell us about this wise leader. It says that the wise leader guards himself from sexual sin, doesn't get drunk, speaks up on behalf of the poor and those who need to be defended and the needy, and then shifts and starts talking about this woman who is wise. She cares about the things at home. She is wise financially in her family and in her community. Now, some of us look at this and say, well, why is this here? Why not describe the wise man? It did all throughout the book. And the very end is like, here's this practice of wisdom for the woman. And one of the things we see here. And then we're going to kind of conclude and go to the Savior portion in your outline. Is this. The mother of Lemuel points out this. Proverbs 31. When this woman, she's basically making. She's making this case, Lemuel's mom. If you want to be someone of wisdom, walk in wisdom. And by the way, who you marry matters. And so be mindful of that. Because if you're someone who's following God in this way, look for someone who's equally yoked with you there. And that's really one of the things we see in the heart of this last chapter here. We can see here. This book is a guide for people who want to live well in God's world. If you'd like to write things down, write this down and we'll go to the Savior portion. What we learn here in this book is the godly and the wise should be one and the same. How do I know that? Because of parallelism. Because the opposite is also true. The wicked and the fool. So we see throughout this book, be godly, walk in wisdom. If you want to be wicked, you're going to walk in foolishness. And so for us as followers of Jesus, this book shows us it's not just a matter of is that the right thing to do? [00:33:18] Speaker B: But. [00:33:19] Speaker A: But ask yourself this question. Is that the wise thing to do? And that's very different. The Savior. You can write this down. We'll go kind of briefly through this here in your outline. You can write this in. Jesus is the wise teacher. Jesus is the wise teacher. Amen. The wise teacher. Throughout this book, we have the case being made for wisdom being followed. It starts off on the screen here in chapter eight, it says this. And now, my son, another one of the 10 speeches. Listen to me. Blessed are those. Does that sound familiar? What do you think of when you hear the Blessed are the beatitudes. Right. Matthew 7. Right. Like the Sermon on the Mount. Blessed are those who keep my ways and be wise Jesus. Sermon on the Mount tells a story about two builders who built on the rock and on the sand. Jesus makes the case, this case very clear. If you want to be someone who's wise, you're going to do the things that I say. You're not just going to read it. You're not just going to understand it. You're not just going to teach other people about it. You're going to do the things. Proverbs 8 says the same. Go to the next slide, there. And then Matthew 7 as well, speaks about this wise builder. And he says, a wise man built his house on the rock, and the foolish man built his house on the sand. And then when the storm comes, when the hard thing comes, who stands, whose life stands the wise because they've done the things that Jesus says, not just because they've read the things that Jesus says. Secondly, what else do we see? Jesus is not just the wise teacher, but Jesus is someone who warns. Jesus warns. And you can write that and point to under Savior, is this Jesus warning the foolish? Now, like, where did that come from? One of the things that I said throughout is this Lady Wisdom, lady folly. We have this back and forth between if you do things God's way, here's all the benefits. If you do things the foolish way, if here's all the consequences in that, that's called a warning, isn't it? I'm warning you. I'm warning you. Jesus warns, doesn't he, throughout his ministry, Just as Proverbs warns people, this is what's gonna happen if you don't do it God's way. And this is what's gonna happen if you do do it God's way. That's what Jesus does. Go to the next slide there. The tail end of that verse says this, but whoever listens to me will dwell secure and be at ease without dread of disaster. That's a warning. Go. Jesus then also shows us that he is someone who is going to warn people. What does that tell us? The devil wants us to believe that warning people is unkind, is unloving. But Jesus warned people, didn't he? So what does that tell us? Warning people is also loving, isn't it? Sometimes people can say, that's hateful, that's rude, you shouldn't do whatever the things are. Jesus warned people over and over and over. Jesus wants us to be aware of what is wise, not just is this the right thing, or is that the right thing? What is wise? And then warn people, that's not walking in wisdom. Thirdly, and lastly of the Savior portion, Proverbs tells us in chapter 14, verse 12, there is a way that seems right to a man, but its end leads to what if we were just used to pick, for example, Religion, and just insert that right here, for example, there is a way that seems right to a man on how to get to heaven, but its way ends where death, doesn't it? In other words, there's plenty of people that say, look at all of the religions out there. I can pick any of those things, that's just fine. And any. There's a way that seems right to them. Who are you to say that? There's only one way I get that question right. Who are you? Who am I? I'm not. I'm not the person Jesus is. Jesus is the one who said there is only one way. He's the author of truth, and so he gets to decide what is true. And then John 14 very clearly, verse 6 says, There's a way that seems right to a man, says Proverbs. Jesus says, I am the way, and there is no other way. There is no other way. So yes, there is a way that seems right to a man, and there is only one way that is right to the wise person who's going to follow Jesus. And it's what Jesus says. And so the gospel is clearly seen there, isn't it? There's not many ways to fix the sin problem in the world. There's only Jesus Christ as our solution. Amen. Only Jesus Christ. In conclusion to all of that, the genius of Proverbs doesn't just say, be wise and figure it out by yourself. It shows us the mechanics of our own heart, that we are people who are going to deceive ourselves even, and as the culture says, to follow our own hearts. And Proverbs says, watch out for that. And then it says this. The wise person, by contrast, listens to rebuke. The wise person walks the narrow road instead of the wide road. And that road, the narrow road, is going to lead to actual life. What do we learn about God, about humanity and about me? Here's the conclusion. If you like to write things down, you can write this down in the very small space that you have left on your outline. What does this teach about God, about humanity, about me? There's many things. And as usual, I'll just put something short on the screen for us here. God wants his people to thrive on the earth and in his grace has given us clear principles to make that happen, hasn't he? He hasn't just been like, be wise and figure out how to do that. He said, here is an entire book or on how to do that and why you should live in this wisdom. He has given us away. Because God is a God, who is gracious, giving us more than we deserve, and desires to see us thrive in that way. And that's why it gives us so much instruction on all the things that we covered and that we didn't cover. Because God is saying, I want you to thrive there. And I've given you information on how to do just that. What does this teach us about humanity? The foolishness of the world is a direct result of its rejection of the God of the Bible. When we look around and you see things and you're like, why would you do that? That's so foolish, you might use other words, why would that decision be made by whoever the person is? Foolishness of the world is a direct result of its rejection of the God of the Bible, even in name of I believe in God. And this is why throughout, especially the first portion of Proverbs, we see the fear of God talked about so much. Because as the fear of God decreases, the foolishness of man will increase. As we continue to be people that get on our knees before the Lord and treat him as a holy and righteous and good God that He is, and obey Him. Not just learn information from him, but obey him, our wisdom will grow, our lifestyle will succeed in many spaces and in me. And I usually make this in the first person, and I encourage you to do that. Whatever God might be saying to you through this book, I see this clearly, especially because this is a father speaking to his son. At the end, we see a mother speaking to her son, thinking about teaching children. Here's my question for myself, and maybe for you as well, will I teach my children and the children in my care, will I disciple them in the ways of the Lord? Will I own the responsibility as a parent and to point them towards the ways of God? And maybe some of you are like, I don't have kids. The children in your care, the children in your influence. If I don't take the lead informing the hearts of my children and the children in my care, the enemy will do that. The author of Proverbs knows that. And that's why this is a letter written to the children. Hey, pay attention. Listen. The whole book is centered around the experienced, teaching the children, teaching those. In the future, I want you to thrive. I'm gonna give you wisdom to help you do just that. Let's pray. Father in heaven, we are grateful that you're a God who is gracious, giving us more than we deserve. Not just a God who stepped into the world and dying on our behalf so that we could have a relationship with you. You're one who gave us profound wisdom, wisdom from you and you alone. Truth that we can count on, principles that we can live our life around. And we can find great comfort this morning, Lord, knowing you're a God who desires to be in close relationship with us. And so with all the information that we hear today that we can read in your word, Lord, you don't want us to just know that in our minds. You want us to be like this wise builder who did the things that you called us to that demonstrated that kind of wisdom and that kind of commitment to you and you alone. Thank you for the continual work that you are doing through your spirit in us to shape us to be more like you. Help us to be receptive to the work that you are doing. Help us to be bold and courageous and step into those places that we might feel uncomfortable because that's where you might be calling us. In Jesus name, Amen. We're going to sing a couple songs. If you would like to pray with myself or Pastor Les or a couple people in the back, we would be happy to do that. These songs, well known songs that just lift up the name of the Lord. And if you'd like to maybe just lay out some stuff and pray with us about other things, maybe it's not about the sermon, but other things going on in your life, we would love to do that. Let's stand and sing together. [00:43:40] Speaker B: Waking or sleeping Thy presence my life. Be thou my wisdom and thou my true word. I am with thee and thou with me. Lord, Thou my great father and I thy true son Thou, High king of heaven My treasure my Lord, you are more precious. Lord, you are more costly than gold. Lord, you are more beautiful than diamonds. Nothing I desire. High king of heaven when victory is won may I reach heaven. Joy, heavenly son the heart of my own heart forever. Still be my vision. Out of my own heart whatever before still be my vision. Holy, holy, holy. Morning Our song shall rise to thee Holy, holy, holy, Merciful and mighty God in three mercy. Holy, holy, holy Though the darkness hide the Though the eye of sinful man my glory may not see Only thou art holy There is none beside the perfect power in love and glory. Holy, holy, holy Lord God almighty all thy worship Praise thy name in earth and sky and sea. Holy, holy, holy, Merciful and mighty God in presence. God in three person Blessed. [00:51:18] Speaker A: Great song. Before Gerald closes us in prayer, I want to say something really important. There are so many times I have been a fool. So many times I've made foolish choices and I am so grateful for God's abundant mercy. And every one of you here in this room have been a fool at times. And we rejoice that God is a God of abundant mercy, that we can keep running back to him, we can keep laying our stuff before him and he continues to call us back towards wisdom. And so with whatever things you might be thinking about today, looking back at your life, saying, I've made so many foolish choices, or I've made major choices in my life that have been so foolish, remember that God is a God of abundant mercy for every single one of us today who continues to call us back to Himself. Just hold that in your mind, Gerald, if you'd close in prayer. [00:52:21] Speaker C: Heavenly Father, you are a holy God, you are mighty and you are powerful, you are merciful, you are so many things. And we have to come to you just in awe of who you are and what you've done for us. And God, as we continue to follow after you, as we continue to long for you, we ask for more wisdom. We ask for not worldly wisdom, but yours that you want to freely and abundantly give us. So we ask that as we are going through this life, when we have those times of doubt, times of confusion, or times where the world gets really loud, God, we pray that you come through clearly, that we hear your voice, and that we with a desire to follow you, a desire to be obedient, and the desire to know that you know better than we do, that we be obedient to that. So much so that as we go out in this world, the world is confused by where our wisdom comes from. And when they ask God, let us just boldly and triumphantly point to you and say, because my God knows best. We thank you that we can lean on you, that we can ask for your help day in and day out, sometimes minute by minute, and you will hear us. So bless us this next week, let it be that we go out and we know that we can just ask you for anything. We can ask you for all the wisdom in the world. And let it be that we are courageous enough to say, yes, God, I want to follow what you have to say. So bless us this week in Jesus name, amen.