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Proverbs 2:1-22
“My son, if thou
wilt receive my words, and hide my commandments with thee; 2 so
that thou incline thine ear unto wisdom, and apply thine heart to understanding; 3 yea, if thou criest after
knowledge, and liftest up thy voice
for understanding; 4 if thou seekest her as silver, and searchest for
her as for hid treasures, 5 then
shalt thou understand the fear of the LORD, and find the knowledge of
God. 6 For
the LORD giveth wisdom: out of his mouth cometh knowledge and understanding. 7 He
layeth up sound wisdom for the righteous: he is a buckler to them that
walk uprightly. 8 He keepeth the paths of judgment, and preserveth
the way of his saints. 9 Then shalt thou understand righteousness, and
judgment, and equity; yea, every good
path. 10 When
wisdom entereth into thine heart, and knowledge is pleasant unto thy soul; 11 discretion
shall preserve thee, understanding shall keep thee: 12 to
deliver thee from the way of the evil man, from the man that speaketh froward
things; 13 who leave the paths of uprightness, to walk in the ways of darkness; 14 who
rejoice to do evil, and delight in
the forwardness of the wicked; 15 whose ways are crooked, and they froward in their
paths: 16 To deliver thee from the strange woman, even from the stranger which flattereth with her words; 17 which
forsaketh the guide of her youth, and forgetteth the covenant of her God. 18 For her house inclineth unto death, and her paths unto the dead. 19 None
that go unto her return again, neither take they hold
of the paths of life. 20 That thou mayest walk in the way of good men, and keep the paths of the
righteous. 21 For the upright shall dwell in the land, and the perfect shall remain in it. 22 But
the wicked shall be cut off from the earth, and the
transgressors shall be rooted out of it.”
Introduction
“Proverbs
2 begins with “My son,” there are 23 verses through here that begin that
way. Certainly Solomon had heard that
many, many times from his father, David. In fact as we go through the Book of Proverbs you can hear many no doubt of David’s lessons, spoken to his son
Solomon. Solomon by the Spirit and
through his quill puts much of this to the page, and then transgresses most of
what he wrote in this book of wisdom. You and I, as we listen to these things, no doubt can receive them from
the LORD,
“my son,” you can put “my daughter” there if it’s applicable. This begins by saying “My son,” now there’s some “if’s” here, “if thou wilt receive my words,” there’s a qualifier there, ‘if
you will receive them, if you’ll take them into your heart,’ “and hide my
commandments with thee;” (verse 1) you’ll guard them, keep them, “so that thou incline thine ear unto
wisdom, and apply thine heart to
understanding; (verse 2) the idea is for “incline” is “you stoop towards
it,” “yea, if thou criest after
knowledge, and liftest up thy voice
for understanding;” (verse 3) the vertical here put in front of us, crying
out to the LORD, lifting up your voice, “If” again, “thou seekest
her as silver, and searchest for her as for hid treasures;” (verse 4) your translation might say “as gold”, “Then” it tells us “shalt thou understand the fear of the LORD.” (verse 5) So, he begins a challenge here, no doubt to
our hearts, ‘If you will receive.’ We’re studying the Book of Proverbs, you can read
through it and not let it have any impression on your life. He says ‘But if you will, if you’ll receive it, if
you will hide these things within, you’ll keep them to yourself, you’ll incline
your ear, you’re listening for the sake of obeying, and apply your heart to
understand these things, if you cry after them, if you lift up your voice…’ Now, you’re gonna do that, it’s gonna
happen. Any one of us that’s spent any
number of years trying to live in our own wisdom, knows what it was like then
to finally cry out to the Lord and say ‘Uncle,
I got nothing, Lord, whatever I have, it ain’t bailing me out of this situation
and out of this heartache,’ there
comes a time when that regeneration takes place, you’re born-again, and you
come to the place in regards to trusting his wisdom, you’ve had enough of your
own, I’ve been there, you return once in a while, just to make sure, I’m sure
you need to come back to his wisdom. But
here’s the challenge, ‘But if, so if, if, if you’ll do these
things,’ Verse 4, look, “If thou seekest her as silver, and
searchest for her as for hid
treasures;” my wife and I were watching this show on TV for awhile, and
it’s kind of like these treasure hunters, they’re up in Alaska, they’re up in
Washington State, and they’re like looking for agates, they’re looking for
different kind of precious stones, they’re looking for gold. You ever see that show? It’s pretty crazy, they stake out their
territory, got their guns to make sure nobody else, you know, and they find one
little strain of topaz or something, you know, this is worth $200,000 or
something. But when they find that, you
hear them out there, YEEEHAAAA!!! they yell, and they just found this, they find a vein of
gold coming down by a slope and they dig a whole side of a hill, looks like
grizzly bears, they dug everything up trying to find. And he’s saying here, ‘silver and gold are really not
going to produce a security that we look for in this world.’ James says that in the last days we’re
foolish, thinking if we store up Kugerands and silver, we’re not saying don’t
be wise, it talks about wisdom, investing is wise. If you have a portfolio worth worrying about,
I looked at mine yesterday, it’s still empty, but if you have a portfolio worth
worrying about, and they say diversity is important, and maybe if you hang
around with those people you’ll get some wisdom. But in the final analysis, there’s no
security in it. Again, when we were in
the Book of Genesis, archeologists in the area of Yemen found the tomb of a
princess, royalty, who talked about the great famine that overtook the world,
that there was a man named Joseph in Egypt that had grain. And she sent her servants with gold, and
Joseph wouldn’t for the gold give her the grain that she needed, she sent her
servant back with rubies, with gems, and the rest of her treasure, and Joseph
wasn’t yielding, and remarkably of course verifying the Scripture, but her
saying ‘All of the gold, all of the
silver, everything she had, her jewels produced in her life no security, it produced
nothing.’ You know, you can chew on
your Kugerands all day long, you’re still going to be
hungry. [Comment: I grew up watching a program titled “Death Valley Days” and there was this
one episode where a miner, prospector, this old wizened guy, was traveling with
this rich guy from the East, who was carrying a bar of gold. The prospector had a canteen and a can of
beans. About halfway across Death
Valley, the rich guy tried to buy the can of beans off the old guy for the bar
of gold. He wouldn’t sell him the can of
beans. The ending showed the prospector
making it across Death Valley, and then a camera panned back and you saw this
skeleton in a suit laying on the side of the dirt road, with a bar of gold in it’s hand or something like that. I’ve never forgotten that image or it’s lesson, the same one Pastor Joe is relating here. Obviously, that princess starved to death,
after testifying of this wisdom in writing before she died.] The idea is here, that God’s wisdom, God’s guidance, God’s care produces something in the inner part of
a human being that’s walking with him, that there is no other thing in this
world that can produce. ‘If
you seek her as silver, you search for her as for hidden treasure,’ “then
shalt thou understand the fear of the LORD, and find the knowledge of
God.” (verse 5) What you
realize is, this is all about reverencing my Creator,
my Redeemer. Verse 6 says, “For the LORD giveth wisdom: out of his mouth cometh knowledge and
understanding.” He’s not playing Marco Polo,
he’s not holding out, he wants to impart. “He layeth up sound wisdom for
the righteous: he is a buckler to them that walk uprightly. He keepeth” or he guards “the paths of judgment, and preserveth the
way of his saints.” (verses 7-8) it isn’t just holding
truth, it’s truth holding you, being held by truth, and he’s talking here about
the security that a believer has in his relationship with the LORD. He lays up sound wisdom for the righteous,
he’s a buckler to them, like a shield to them, he guards their pathway. It’s wonderful to
have our pathway guarded by the Father in heaven. ‘And he preserves the way of his saints.’ how wonderful, “Then shalt thou understand righteousness,
and judgment, and equity; yea, every
good path.” (verse 9) In other words, understanding, and
righteousness, judgment and equity are not just cerebral exercises, they have to do with living out our lives, so you’ll understand every good
path. Of course, verses worldly wisdom,
you know, the people and what they think in this world
now needs to happen.
If You Lack Wisdom, Ask God For It
He
says “When wisdom entereth into thine
heart, and knowledge is pleasant unto thy soul; discretion” being able to
decide, to be discrete, to understand, to discern, “discretion shall preserve thee, understanding shall keep thee:”
(verses 10-11) so, he says here the LORD wants to give wisdom, he wants
to give knowledge, it is something he will guard your life with, he’ll guard
your path with. And when you have that,
discretion will preserve you, and understanding will keep you, but it’s if you
will receive it, if you will look for it, if you incline yourself to apply it,
if you cry after it, if you lift up your voice. God’s not holding out. James, of course, would say ‘If any man lack wisdom, let him ask of God, who giveth liberally and upbraideth not.’ Here’s Old Camel-knees, the Lord Jesus’
half-brother, same Mom, different Dad, Jesus again the oldest of seven, Jesus,
James, Joses, Jude, sisters, you go through the names, the Lord didn’t ask to
be an only child, ‘send me into a nice
home where I can have my own bedroom, I’ve got a lot of studying to do before I
start my public ministry,’ no, he was the oldest of his other siblings, of
seven. There in the 3rd century there was a bishop, in Salamis, that said that the other brothers were
from a previous marriage that Joseph had, Church fathers know nothing about it, Tertulian said they are all the uterine siblings of
Christ. And James, his older brother,
had thought he’d lost his mind, he thought his older brother was mad, they went
after him to try to get him, he’d started saying he was the LORD of hosts and all this. And then of course, after Christ’s death and
resurrection, it says he appears to James, appears to James. And you find out that your older brother is
God, your older brother wasn’t just a goody-two-sandals,
and James then becomes, they called him old camel knees, because he would spend
8 to 10 hours a day on his knees, with his Brother. Because James knew what his favorite color
was, James knew what made him laugh. James knew what his favorite smells were. James knew what it was like to play with him
when they were children. James is the
one that would say to us ‘Look, if you lack wisdom, ask, he gives to
all men liberally, he doesn’t scold you, he upbraideth not, or say ‘oh yea, now
you want to know, now you’re in a mess.’ He says ‘he gives to all men liberally, he
upbraideth not, but let him ask in faith, nothing wavering, a man who lacks
faith is like the waves of the sea, driven and tossed, let not that man think
he’s gonna receive anything.’ He
says ‘you
need to believe this is who he is, he gives if you ask, he’ll lavish it upon you.’ You know,
they said when they buried James, they almost had to
break his legs to straighten him out, to get him in his sarcophagus, because
his knees were deformed from praying all those hours. Of course, there wasn’t anybody he would
rather have been with than his older brother. It says here, if you seek wisdom, if you want it, if you ask God, he’s
the same yesterday, today and forever. He gives, he’ll bestow. It’s
never ‘Oh man, what should I do?’…look,
the Shepherd’s never dependant on the IQ of the sheep. If you’re a sheep and your heart is willing
to be led, the ball’s in his court, and he leads. Too often we ask ‘Lord, what’s your will?’ so we can decide whether we want to
cooperate. He says here, ‘Wisdom
will preserve you, understanding will keep you, will guard you.’
Wisdom Is Going To Deliver You From Something
And
then he’s gonna tell us two things here, in verse 12, it says “to deliver thee”
and in verse 16 it says “to deliver thee.” So, wisdom is going to deliver you from the wicked man, and from the
strange woman. There’s none of those
that go here. And ladies, you can flip
that, “the strange man,” ok, it draws a picture of immorality, the idea is, it
is something our culture is infected with. So, he says here, here’s the first thing, wisdom, it preserves you, it
guards you, it keeps you. For this reason, and it’s the reason God
gives, “to deliver thee from the way of the evil man, from the man that speaketh froward things;” (verse 12) “proud
things” wicked people are salesmen,
they’re good, they’ve got a spiel, but he says ‘Wisdom, understanding, it’ll
preserve you, it’ll keep you from the way of the evil man, from the man that
speaks proud things,’ “who leave the paths of uprightness, to walk in the
ways of darkness; who rejoice to do evil, and delight in the forwardness” or “the proudness” or “the arrogancy” “of
the wicked; whose ways are crooked,
and they froward in their paths:”
(verses 13-15) They’re twisted, iniquity, they’re
froward in their paths. It says they
love to walk in darkness. In John’s
Gospel, Jesus says this, he said, ‘Look, God sent not his Son into the world
to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved. He that believeth on him, Jesus, is not
condemned, that he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not
believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that Light is
come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their
deeds are evil.’ It said back in
here in Proverbs, it says ‘they leave the paths of uprightness, to
walk in the ways of darkness, they rejoice to do evil,’ (verse 13) Jesus said here, the
condemnation is that Light is come into the world, and men love darkness, it’s
“agape” darkness, it’s speaking of unbelievers, godless men and women, and it
says they “agape” darkness more than light. The idea is they’re devoted to it, they’re not just fond of it, they’re devoted to it. Because if they turn, then their own deeds have to come into the light,
and they have to admit their own deeds are evil, so they are devoted to a path
that goes away from God. And they
rejoice in it, it says, remarkably in the Book of Proverbs. So, he says ‘Wisdom, discretion,
understanding, if you seek God, it’ll guard you, it’ll keep you from the kind
of people that will lure you into those things.’ And let me tell you, those are not the
minority in this world and in this culture, they’re the majority, they’re the
majority. Broad is the way that leads to
destruction, many there be that go therein, narrow is
the way that leads to eternal life, few there be that find it. So, to preserve you from those kind of
influences, wicked men, then look at verse
16, it says “to deliver thee from
the strange woman, even from the
stranger [foreigner] which flattereth
with her words;” I saw her last week, look in verse 17, “which forsaketh the guide of her youth, and forgetteth the
covenant of her God.” So it says
that she’s foreign, and the idea is, she knew the Truth, but she has become
foreign to the goodness of God, it’s a foreign thing to her now, it calls her a
foreign woman because she forsook the guide of her youth, and she had forgotten
the covenant of her God. Isn’t that
interesting? And it’s warning, and look,
the same thing goes, ladies, a guy in the church, he’s after you, he’s
flattering you with his lips, he’s trying to get you to do something. You know what the Scripture says, again, what
you shouldn’t do. He’s trying to get you
into bed, trying to lure you into sexual a relationship. You have my permission to say ‘Sweetheart, close your eyes,’ and when
his eyes are closed, you can punch him in the nose as hard as you can. Because he has no respect for you as a woman,
he cares about one thing, and it isn’t you. Someone will take me literally, I know, and I’ll get sued, but you get
the point, so we’ll get back to the men again. “to deliver thee from the strange woman, even from the stranger which flattereth
with her words;” (verse 16) look, “which flattereth with her words;” men need to be delivered from women that are sweet-talkers, because they’re suckers. All through the Scripture God warns men about women. There’s
nowhere where he warns women about men, women are just smarter, they know
what’s going on. Men need to be
warned. She flatters you with her lips,
you know ‘You’re five-foot-four, you’re
so tall’ [laughter] I used to be 6-6 when I was younger, ah, ‘You’re so smart,’ and you’re thinking ‘I can’t believe you would realize that,’ ‘you’re so handsome.’ And the
reason no one else has said that, because none of it’s true, you’re short and
stupid, and ugly [loud laughter]. But
men, ‘I am? I am?’ look, I’m making a joke here, in
one sense. But in the sense that, that
flattery, that bait that’s laid out there, can be taken into the heart so
easily. Unfortunately, wives are much
more honest than that. You know, ‘I can’t believe you did that,’ instead
of ‘Honey, I know you tried,’ I’ll
tell you this, wives, you can learn a lesson from these women, because as we go
through the Book of Proverbs, we’re gonna hear over and over, of men warned of
that honey-dripping woman, ‘her lips are sweet, her words entice, she
leads him like an ox to the slaughter.’ You can’t get your husband to cooperate on anything. You need to learn a lesson from these women,
because it says ‘a wise woman builds her house, and a foolish women tears it down over
and over and over,’ and a man can be encouraged, led by a complimentary spouse. Man is so foolish, he needs to be warned
about the wrong kind of woman whose gonna lay a trip on him for a different
reason. It says here, ‘Wisdom
will deliver you from the strange woman, even from the stranger which
flattereth with her words,’ “which forsaketh the guide of her youth, and
forgetteth the covenant of her God.” (verse 17) she’s turned away from those things. “For her house inclineth unto death, and
her paths unto the dead.” don’t go into her house, guys, do not go into her
house, “her house inclineth unto death,
and her paths unto the dead.” (verse 18) Now, this immoral woman, her house
inclineth unto death, that’s not just talking about sexually transmitted
diseases. I think amongst teenagers in
America right now, 6,000 teenagers a day are inflected with sexually
transmitted diseases, those are the current statistics
in this country [I think this sermon was given in 2016]. They say now, and I don’t know if these
statistics are true in the Church, but men between 15 and 39, over 90 percent
are watching pornography. One out of
three new pornography users is a woman in this country. Largest pornography users in the world,
China, number two, South Korea, number 3, Japan, I think America’s 4 or 5. We produce more pornography than any country,
but we’re number 4th or 5th. It’s a global infection. Nothing new in a sense, if you read about the
Canaanites, their sexual practices, their killing of their own children,
bestiality, the things they did, if you go back, even Ezekiel is challenging
the priests because they had pornography on the walls of the Temple, constantly
imagining things the wrong way. Paul’s
ministering in Ephesus and in Corinth where there’s a thousand temple
prostitutes come down into the city every night, they didn’t need pornography,
they had live women to do whatever they want. It isn’t a new problem. It’s a
new problem in this sense, everybody’s got their own
screen they carry around in their pocket. Everybody’s got a mobile device. It’s like an alcoholic having Vodka coming through his kitchen faucet. [see the old and
hilariously funny movie titled Tight
Little Island] If you’re a heroine
addict you at least go out and score somewhere on the street. If you’re a porn addict, nobody’s watching,
nobody’s around, you have your anonimoty, nobody’s there. You can convince yourself ‘I ain’t hurting anybody else, Lord I’ll get
through this.’ The truth is, it gets
worse and worse and worse, it’s an infection. Wisdom and discretion will protect you, if you want it, if you incline
your heart to it, if you give yourself to it, it will keep you from wicked men,
and it will keep you from immorality. It
says “her house inclineth unto death,” look, Paul says this “Know ye not” this is not just an Old Testament thing in Proverbs, “Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of
God. Be not deceived, neither
fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of
themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor
revilers, nor extortioners shall inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you…” wonderfully
God changes our lives through the power of his Word, through the new birth, the
Gospel, “such were some of you, but you are washed, you are sanctified, you are justified in the name of the Lord
Jesus and by the Spirit of God.” That’s a wonderful thing, we’ve been set free. ‘In whom the Son sets free
is free indeed.’ My
encouragement to you is, if you’re caught up in any of those things, you run to
him. It says if you cry to him for
wisdom, if you lift up your voice, if you look to him, he imparts, he wants to
clean, he wants to, he’s in the process of sanctification with his own
children, he wants to put our feet on solid ground, he wants to so he can
deliver us from wicked men, from immorality. It’s just clear, it’s what he says he wants.
You don’t have to beg it of him. “For her house inclineth unto death, and
her paths unto the dead. None that go
unto her return again, neither take they hold of the paths of life.” (verses
18-19) but he’s saying, that we would be delivered, verse 20, “That thou mayest walk in the way of good men, and keep the paths of the
righteous.” here’s the reason, “For the upright shall dwell in the land, and
the perfect shall remain in it.” (verse 21) but in
contrast, “But the wicked shall be cut
off from the earth, and the transgressors shall be rooted out of it.” (verse 22) Look,
this is a generality, certainly spoken to the nation of Israel in regards to
the land. There, sadly, are many today
who stand up for Christ, we see their heads cut off, we see them put in piles
and burned alive, we see them imprisoned, we see them martyred, those things
are going on. But even in those
circumstances, there’s a way to die. If
that comes our way, you know, I don’t think I’d mind a guillotine, I don’t want a dull butter knife. But
you know, when that blade’s coming down, I just want to be able to say ‘Lord, here I come! Here I come!’ I don’t want to be saying ‘Sorry about this, sorry about that…here we
go.’ I just want to be able to say ‘Here I come Lord, I’m washed, I’m
regenerated, I’m yours, this world was driving me nuts
anyhow. Here I come to the next.’ He
says “the upright shall dwell in the
land, and the perfect shall remain in it.” (verse 21) As we go through the Book of Proverbs, here’s
the generality, ‘When life is lived wisely, it is lived more easily, life is lived more
easily when it’s lived wisely.’ If you live stupidly, life is harder. If you live sinfully, God can’t endorse that and bless that, because he
loves you. Chapter 3,
Proverbs 3:1-20
“My son, forget not my law; but let thine heart keep my commandments: 2 for
length of days, and long life, and peace, shall they add to thee. 3 Let
not mercy and truth forsake thee: bind
them about thy neck; write them upon the table of thine heart: 4 So shalt thou find favour and good understanding in the sight of God and man. 5 Trust
in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. 6 In
all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths. 7 Be
not wise in thine own eyes: fear the LORD,
and depart from evil. 8 It shall be health to thy navel, and marrow to thy
bones. 9 Honour the LORD with thy substance, and with
the firstfruits of all thine increase: 10 So shall thy barns be filled with plenty, and thy presses shall burst out with new
wine. 11 My son, despise not the chastening of the LORD; neither be weary of his
correction: 12 for whom the LORD loveth he correcteth; even as
a father the son in whom he
delighteth. 13 Happy is the man that findeth wisdom, and the
man that getteth
understanding. 14 For the merchandise of it is better than the merchandise of silver, and the gain thereof than fine gold. 15 She is more precious than rubies: and all the things thou canst desire are not to be compared unto her. 16 Length
of days is in her right hand; and in her left hand riches and honour. 17 Her
ways are ways of pleasantness, and
all her paths are peace. 18 She is a tree of life to them that lay
hold upon her: and happy is every one that retaineth her. 19 The
LORD by wisdom hath founded the earth; by understanding hath he established the
heavens. 20 By his knowledge the depths are broken up, and the
clouds drop down the dew.”
“Blessings
of wisdom now, it tells us. Here’s
again, “My son,” now look at the
things he says, “forget not,” “let,” he says “bind them,” “write them,” we’re
going to hear what he says here. “My son, forget not my law;” don’t
forget the Word of God, don’t forget, “but
let thine heart keep my commandments:” (verse 1) so he’s appealing both to
the heart and the mind here. Forget not
your mental facility, let not your heart, but let thine heart, the inner part
of the man that drives more deeply, let that keep thy commandments, guard your
heart with all diligence, from it flow the issues of life. Not from the intellect, from the heart. Hard even to define, the seat of desire,
desire is a way more powerful influential force than thought. I meet the smartest people that do the
stupidest things. Because
if you let something sit in your heart, the heart in the long run always makes
a convert of the mind. And you
always then begin to justify the thing that you long for. So here, it’s appealing to both, “My son, forget not my law; but let thine
heart keep my commandments:” here’s what he says, “for length of days, and long life, and peace, shall they add to thee.”
(verses 1-2) I like the idea of long life and peace put together there, I don’t like
long life and misery put together [which you can get being married to the wrong
gal], I like the idea of length of days and peace, that’s a good thing. I enjoy that idea. Another appeal, “Let not mercy and truth forsake thee: bind them about thy neck; write them upon the table of thine heart:”
(verse 3) the idea is like a necklace, mercy and truth, wear it
openly. Some Christians are
ashamed. Mercy and truth, wear that, “write them upon the table of thine heart” you keep them internally, written on the table of your heart, and you wear them
openly, you’re not ashamed, mercy and truth. Look, you run into other people, they’re struggling, they’re having a
hard time, that’s not time to go on facebook and talk about them, that’s a time
to pray for them [or help bail them out, if it’s within your ability], tell
them you love them, see what you can do to help. Let mercy and truth be something you wear,
openly and outwardly, compassion for other people. Write them deeply on your own heart, so you
keep that testimony, so that they’re there. “So shalt thou find favour and
good understanding in the sight of God and man.” (verse 4) So look,
he’s not saying ‘Get your Bible, put it
under your pillow, sleep on it, by osmosis you’ll get all this stuff in your
mind.’ What he says is, ‘forget
not, let your heart keep, guard, these things, because it’s good, you’re gonna
have a longer life, it’s going to be more peaceful, so don’t let mercy and
truth out of your life, bind them about thee, about your neck, write them upon
the table of your heart,’ and he says, “So shalt thou find favour and good understanding in the sight of God
and man.” (verse 4)
An Anchor For The Soul
Now,
verses 5 and 6 are probably two of the most famous verses in the
Scripture. A lot of people have them
memorized. “Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall
direct thy paths.” (verses 5-6) Notice it’s conditional. The first three responsibilities are yours, “Trust in the LORD with all of your heart” number
one. Number two, “lean not unto thine own understanding,” number three, “In all your ways acknowledge him,” THEN “he shall direct your paths.” And it’s a good thing to know in this world,
that the LORD is directing our paths. It’s interesting, my son, who is a voracious
reader, stuck this testimony in front of me, F.W. Borem had recorded it. Enoch and Hannah Stapleton came to the
country in like the 1740s, from England, and Hannah was terrified, newly
married, because they then went into the Virginia forest, and the trees then,
you read in Ohio and so forth, that Lincoln cut down, five foot across, huge
forests, Native Americans everywhere, she was terrified. She said “I
thought the Atlantic Ocean was fearful, coming across in a sailing ship.” She said “When
I got into the forest, I,’ every day she just longed for England, longed to
be back home again, she was terrified. She said ‘My
husband’s out there, we kind of got to this area we were going in, and there
were these other folk, we realized, familiar faces from the ship, it felt so
good, and there already were a few homes there,’ and she said, “people tended to build homes in communities
where there was water, but because for safety also.” “Here’s
my husband every day, cutting down trees, sawing, working, I’m kind of
watching,” she said, “I went out and
sat down, and he noticed that I had the Bible, and I was reading a verse, and
he came over, he said ‘What are your reading?’ she said, “Trust in the LORD with all of your heart, and lean not to your own understanding,” she
said “It’s all highlighted, it’s
underlined, how did that happen?” he
said, “Well, his father gave him the
Bible before he left England,” he said “I
was still praying about whether we should go, and I sat down and I read those
verses, and the Lord put them on my heart, and I underlined them, and those are
the verses I keep in my heart, and hear them, that if I trust with all my
heart, that he’s going to direct our paths, we’re going to be at the right
place,” so 1756, all these things were going on [French and Indian wars]
the French and the British were fighting, and they kind of, the British got hold
of on the Canadian side of the border, that area, and they were drawn, the
Shawnee and the Iroquois, different tribes of Indians began to fight on
different sides. And the whole thing,
around 1756 fell into the hands of the British, and four of the tribes of the
Indians got together and said ‘Now the
British are going to rule everything if we don’t deal with them, drive them
out, they’re going to deal with us,’ so they decided to drive them back on
the other side of the Appalachian Mountains, from the Ohio side back towards
the ocean. And they were coming in,
slaughtering, killing, and then they realized, they started kidnapping the
children, because they realized this would put fear in them. And Hannah Stapleton said she heard a scream
out back, and she ran around the back of the house, and thought ‘Oh no,’ and what it was, it was a
diversion, and when she got back there the Indians took, they had by then four
small children, and they took three of her children. And she just said, “My life fell apart,” she said “I
was bitter at God,” she said “I’ll
never trust in the Lord with all my heart, he failed me, that’s not real, you know, trust in the Lord with all your heart. You failed me, that’s not real, I don’t believe it.” Of
course, her husband, Enoch, struggling, trying to encourage her, the kids were
gone. And then a number of colonies,
including the Quakers in Pennsylvania contributed a thousand men, they made a
militia to go after the Indians and try to retrieve children. And finally they met up with some of the
chiefs of the tribes on the river, who had brought some of the children
back. And they had a bundle of sticks, I
don’t know how many hundreds, which represented a child for each stick in the
bundle, and they said “We’re going to
bring them back tomorrow.” And they said, when they brought the children back, the children,
some of them couldn’t speak English, they had learned to speak the Indian
dialects, and they got reunited with the families, some of them were so
confused because they were so young when they were taken away. Some of them, the Indians had to identify, this one was from your home. But they said the strangest thing was, the
kids had won the hearts of the Indians, the Indians had taken them into their
homes, and they said, the Indians sobbed, they convulsed, they wept, they
wanted us to have our kids back, but they were so heartbroken, they had fallen
in love with them, and they made us agree to let them come and visit the kids
in our settlements, and they came regularly. It said, when fall came they brought corn, they brought venison, they
brought food. ‘If it wasn’t for the fact that the kids were stolen, the Indians fell
in love with them, returned them, we’d have never survived those early winters,
but because of the friendship between them,’ and she said, “She would look at her husband, and weep,
and say ‘I didn’t trust in the Lord with all my heart, I threw this verse out
the window, I trusted in the Lord with a little bit of my heart, you trusted
with all of yours. The only reason I
trusted with a little, was because you taught me to trust him a little, I want
to learn to trust in him with all.” I just tell this remarkable story, how they got their kids back
again. And it doesn’t always pan out
that way. But it’s just a remarkable
story, because, for you and I it’s trust in the Lord with all your heart,
because you have a flat tire, trust in the Lord with all your heart, because
your favorite flavour of Dunkin Donuts was sold out when you got there, and
you’re really depressed, trust in the Lord with all of your heart, because you
didn’t get the raise that you wanted. But you hear something like that, and you think, this is remarkable that
someone was able to take hold of a verse, and have it be an anchor in their soul,
better man than me, better man than me. You know, if somebody stole my little kids I’d be out with them, ‘I’m signing up, I got my gun, let’s go, let’s get the kids back.’ So for us, first thing, ok, “Trust in the LORD with all thine heart;” are we ready to do that? Jeremiah says “O
LORD,
I know that the way of man is not in himself, it is not in man that walketh to
direct his steps, so O LORD, correct me, but with
judgment, not in thine anger, lest thou bring me to nothing.” Here it says if we want to have our steps
directed, number 1, ‘Trust in the LORD with all of your heart,’ these things are tough, these
are not easy, to trust, to lean upon, to put your full weight on him. Secondly, it says ‘and
lean not to your own understanding,’ I don’t know about you, that’s a tough one. You know, he tells us in Isaiah, he says “My thoughts are not your
thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, for as the heavens are higher than the
earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, my thoughts are higher than your
thoughts,” so he says here, ‘lean not to your own understanding.’ He doesn’t say ‘Check your mind in at the door.’ ‘Those people sit up there in that old meter factory, that guy’s a cult
leader, they leave their brain out in the car.’ I’m not saying do that. The mind is a terrible thing to waste. Right? Intellect is incredible, God’s given it to
us, and we have the mind of Christ, and he hasn’t given us the spirit of fear,
but of power and love and a sound mind, we have the mind of Christ. We’re to use our minds, but the idea here is,
there are circumstances where he says, look, our own understanding can be the
greatest threat to divine guidance. Our
own understanding is what led us before we were saved. All the years we spent in the world, it was our
own understanding, and we learned to think in certain patterns and to operate a
certain way. And then we come to the
Lord, he’s saying things like ‘Turn the other cheek, go the extra mile,’ you know, you’re thinking ‘Wait a minute,
you do that and people are gonna walk on top of you, people are going to use
you,’ and the Lord’s given us a whole different set of directives. He doesn’t anywhere say be stupid and don’t
use your mind. He says, ‘Look,
first thing you need to do is trust him with all your heart.’ Secondly, ‘Don’t depend on, don’t lean on
your own understanding, but rather’ he says, ‘do this,” #3 “in all your ways
acknowledge him, in the supermarket, the way you drive, what
you watch on TV when no one’s around, in your marriage, your home, with your
children, with your grandchildren, where you work, in school, in all your ways,
whatever ways you have, whatever he’s left to you, whatever your ways are, in
all your ways acknowledge him, and then, ok, then he does his work,’ “he
shall direct thy paths.” (verse 6b) way
less obstacles that way. So, you know,
you read that and think ‘Alright Lord, if
I do these things, you will direct, Lord. That’s what I want to do in my life.’
“Be Not Wise In Thine Own Eyes: Fear The LORD, And Depart From Evil”
Verse 7 says, “Be not wise in thine own eyes: fear the LORD,
and depart from evil.” he kind of just told us that. Without
fearing, there’s no departing, there’s only being a smarty-pants. Don’t be wise in your own eyes, don’t be a
smarty-pants. He says ‘Fear
the LORD,’ he’s Almighty God, if you’re
not holding him in awe and reverence, you don’t know him. It’s not cowardly fear, it says in Psalm
19, the fear of the LORD is clean, it’s a healthy fear. “fear the LORD,” and part of that, what that looks
like is ‘depart from evil.’ If
you’re living in immorality, you’re given to the person, you’re playing games,
and you’re sitting in church, saying ‘I’m
a Christian,’ look, it happens all the time, ‘Ya, we’re sleeping together, we love church, we love Bible study, we
love singing the songs.’ But wait a
minute, you’re just wise in your own eyes, you’re a smarty-pants. It says here ‘Don’t be wise in your own eyes,
fear the LORD, depart from evil.’ You want his blessing, you want his guidance,
you want those things, this is his Word, it’s what it
says. “It shall be” to do these things, “health to thy navel, and marrow to thy
bones.” (verse 8) and everybody wants a healthy bellybutton, I know that. [how about what’s
under it? I was just diagnosed with a
3cm aneurism of the aortic artery] “It shall be health to thy navel, and marrow
to thy bones.” “It shall be medicine,” is
the Hebrew idea “to thy navel,” ‘to your gut, the deepest part of your being, it’s
medicinal to walk with him, to know that you’re in his leading, that you can
trust him.’ You might not
understand everything that’s going on, but you’re trusting in that he’s
directing your path. He says that’s
medicine to the deepest part of your being, and it’s marrow to thy bones, it’s moisture, it’s life. Look, scientists tell us all kinds of things, there’s aroma therapy,
there’s all kinds of things that effect our, you know, one day out of seven if
you rest, your immune system functions better. Scientists are telling us about the epigenome now, not just about DNA,
but epigenetics, the markers that ride above it, that you inherit from grandma,
some of them, now they’re realizing they’re effected by nutrition and
environment, and can flip things on and off in your DNA. That’s just the design in the throwaway
container. The truth is, above all of
that, there’s something else if we yield to him, if we depart from evil, if we
let him lead us, it is medicine to the deepest part of our being, it’s healthy for us. And it is moisture to our bones.
The Principle Of Giving
He
says, “Honour the LORD with thy substance, and with the firstfruits of all thine increase: so shall thy barns be filled with plenty, and
thy presses shall burst out with new wine.” (verses 9-10) the idea is just, look, it doesn’t say here ‘Give,’ ‘Here we go again, I knew this sermon was coming again.’ No, no, no, no, we’re just going through the
Bible, it’s not my fault. The New
Testament, the principle is that you get to give, God blesses you, you receive,
and part of your stewardship then is giving. [Your whole nature, with the indwelling Holy Spirit, changes to that of
wanting to give to others in need, giving so others can hear the Gospel, just a
general motive of giving takes over if God’s Holy Spirit is dwelling inside of
you. You shine with God’s attitude of
giving to others.] People in the Church
that are covetous, that want to get in your wallet, teach that backwards, that
you give to get, and they mess with your motives, and they turn them backwards
so the only reason you’re giving a tenth is because you want a
hundredfold. Jesus doesn’t know anything
about that, you don’t give to get, you get to give, the blessings in your life are so you can share, so you can give. [Comment: and when you find yourself living by that motive, you can be sure it’s
God whose indwelling you with his Holy Spirit. You may always be wondering where all your
money’s going, but you will also be wondering why it keeps coming back into
your wallet and bank account. This is the God-miracle about money which neither the world nor
some of those greedy misguided preachers understand, nor will they ever.] And it says here, ‘To honour the LORD,’ it doesn’t say ‘Dig
deep,’ none of that going on here, ‘Dig
deep, it’s triple tithe Sunday.’ No,
no, it’s to honour him, honour him, he’s your LORD, honour him. Because when you are too tight, when you hold
onto it, what you’re saying is ‘I trust
my money more than I trust the LORD.’ It says in giving, there’s something in
giving, and I’m not, look, I’m learning here, I’m not saying I got all this
nailed down. But there’s something in
giving, it says here, that honours him. “Honour the LORD with thy substance, and with the firstfruits of all thine increase” not with leftovers, with the
firstfruits of your increase, just to give, “so shall thy barns be filled with plenty, and thy presses shall burst
out with new wine.” (verses 9-10) I know, you don’t have barns or wine-presses,
I’m glad about that for most of you.
Don’t Despise God’s Correction In Your Life
Again, “My son, despise not the chastening of
the LORD;
neither be weary of his correction: for
whom the LORD loveth he correcteth; even as a father the son in whom he delighteth.” (verses 11-12) it says here that chastening is a sign of God’s
love and his approval. It says in
Hebrews no one likes chastening, you know, for the present it’s not pleasant,
but it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness. I had a good Dad, and a good Dad is one that
you love and fear. He was more interested
in being my Dad than my buddy. And what
I hated to hear my Mom say is ‘I’m
telling your father.’ I loved him,
but I didn’t want to hear that. And then
they give you that ‘This hurts me more
than it hurts you speech,’ I’m thinking ‘you can save yourself some pain then,
I can take the night off, I don’t want to see the supper, put the belt away if
it’s gonna hurt ya.’ Kids never
believe that, till you have your own and you understand. The LORD’s saying ‘My son, my daughter, don’t
despise the chastening of the LORD,’ if God deals
with you about something, it’s because he cares more about your direction and
your life than evidently you do at that moment, you’ve messed up, got yourself
involved in something you shouldn’t be involved in, he removes his blessing,
brings down the paddle, whatever that is. And it says ‘Don’t be weary of his correction, don’t be resentful’ is the
idea…you’re out sleeping around, smokin’ dope, acting like an idiot, and now
something happens in your life, and you can’t believe he’s doing that? I don’t think he can believe what you were
doing, what you were doing the whole time. It’s like we can live in rebellion and sin, and then when we reach out
asking for a blessing, it doesn’t work that way. Even when you were raised as kids, it didn’t
work that way in your home. You warn
your children, you instruct them, you do all the things here, because you want
them to flourish, you want them to prosper, emotionally, physically,
spiritually, monetarily, you want good for them. He says here “My son, despise not the chastening of the LORD;
neither be weary” don’t
be resentful “of his correction: for whom the LORD loveth he correcteth; even as
a father the son in whom he
delighteth.” (verses 11-12) Look, “even as” God wants us to know this, “even as a father the son in whom he delighteth.” Not the son who drives him nuts, “the son in whom he delighteth.” And look, we don’t do these thing perfectly,
and I raised four kids. You know, I’d
have one of them driving Cathy crazy, Cathy would say ‘You need to talk to them! You
need to get spanked!’ and then sometimes, he’s made her so crazy, that
she’s putting so much pressure on you, that you want to kill him because he’s
ruined your life making mom crazy, you know. And then you go after him to spank him, and she’s yelling ‘Don’t kill him, don’t kill him!’ ‘You
told me to beat him, now you’re trying to preserve his life,’ it’s not that
we do this perfectly, ok, any of us. Chastening is discipline, it is not punishment. We do not punish our children, our discipline
is never punitive. As Christians all the
punishment took place 2,000 years ago on the cross. There is no punishment, God chastens, he does
not punish us, he disciplines us. With your kids at home, you discipline
them. You never say ‘I wish you were never born. You make me sick, I wish you weren’t here.’ That will cut them deeper than anything you
paddle them with. You never hit them in
the face. God has put a large piece of
meat at the proper place for paddling. You never humiliate them in front of their friends,
that’s not what it’s for. You
take them aside. Look, and your children will help you make the rules. ok? You
chasten your children for breaking the rules, for disobedience. You don’t discipline them for doing something
crazy, because that’s what they do, that’s what they do. Again, we were moving into one of our houses,
people were moving furniture up and down, and one of my sons decided to see if
his head would fit between the new rungs on the railing on the stairs, and he
pushed his head inbetween the rungs, and we couldn’t get his head out, and
everybody who wants to move furniture is all upset, we tried oil, and asked him ‘How did you get your head in there,’ and finally we have to bend a new railing to get his head out, well you don’t
discipline him for that, because you didn’t have a rule saying ‘Don’t put your head in the new railing.’ He didn’t break any rules. You have a talk after that, ‘The next time you put your head in the railing, I’m leaving it there. We’re gonna have your 22nd birthday on the stairs. The next time you do that, then you’re
gonna get chastened because you’re breaking the rules.’ Your kids will help you make the rules. They will think up things that you never
thought of, you just pay attention, you’ll have rules. But you never chasten them for just being
crazy, they’re kids. It’s disobedience, that’s a lesson they’ve gotta learn. Let me tell you something, they get out
there, they rob a bank or a convenience store, the police are going to spank them. If they
don’t do that, and end up in the army, the drill instructor is gonna spank
them. When they get out there and go to
work, their boss is going to spank them. Everywhere in life, if you can help their will, which is stubborn and
infected by sin, come under control, you will help them be successful in a
thousand things in life. So here when
the LORD talks about it, he says ‘Look, I love you, and my correction comes
even as a father in the son in whom he delights.’ And as we go through he’s going to talk about
the son that brings shame to the home, the other kind of son. This is the son in whom he delights.
The Value Of Wisdom And
Understanding
Can
we get to the happy man here? Verse 13, “Happy is the man that findeth wisdom,
and the man that getteth
understanding.” It’s been telling us
that all along. Here’s why, “For the merchandise of it is better than the merchandise of
silver, and the gain thereof than fine gold.” (verse 14) What it produces, what wisdom and understanding produce is better than the merchandise, it’s
better than what silver and gold produce. Look, I shouldn’t have to tell you that, you see the world we live in,
pornography, billion dollars, pharmaceuticals, sadly money drives so much of
what goes on, oil, more important than blood in most parts of the world,
money. It says here that “happy” there’s
a fulfillment in the man, the woman that finds wisdom, that gets
understanding, because what that produces, the merchandise of it is
better than the merchandise of silver and of gold. “She” wisdom “is more precious than rubies: and all the things thou canst desire are not
to be compared unto her.” (verse 15) here’s why, because “Length of days is in her
right hand; and in her left hand
riches and honour.” (verse 16) look, without a
quality of life, life can be a curse. How many of us have taken care of our parents in hospice, you know, and
you sometimes see the doctors give up on them, they say ‘There’s nothing else you can do.’ You can help them be comfortable for two more weeks. They may not have quantity of life, but
you’re sure gonna help them have quality of life. Because when there’s quality of life, life is
worth living. He says here, “Length of days is in her right hand; and in her left hand riches and honour. Her
ways are ways of pleasantness, and
all her paths are peace.” (verses 16-17) that’s the kind of life that we want to
live. “and all her paths are peace” I don’t know
about you, that sounds awful good to me. Wisdom “She is a tree of life to them that lay hold upon her: and happy is every one that retaineth her.” (verse 18) “Happy is everyone that retaineth her,”
here’s the proof of it, “The LORD by wisdom hath founded the earth; by understanding hath he established the
heavens. By his knowledge the depths are
broken up, and the clouds drop down the dew.” (verses 19-20) You think wisdom doesn’t work? You think it doesn’t produce, you think it’s
not better than silver and gold? “The LORD by wisdom founded the earth;
by understanding hath he established the heavens.” prepared them, “By his knowledge the depths are broken up,
and the clouds drop down the dew.” (verses 19-20) The LORD is, in his own preparation, in
the demonstration of his genius, in the Creation, he used wisdom, knowledge,
understanding. It says here it’s more to
be desired, in what it will produce in your life, if it worked for him and
that’s what he used, he didn’t use gold or silver to do any of those things,
wisdom, knowledge and understanding, great things to take hold of. Look, we see homes, million-dollar homes,
folks have million-dollar homes, where there’s divorce, where there’s
alcoholism, Betty Ford Clinic is full. We see homes that are small, homes, homey, feel good, there’s love. Proverbs is going to say ‘it’s better to have a dinner of
herbs with peace than a fatted calf in a crazy house.’ Wisdom, knowledge and understanding, it’s
great for all of us, it’s good for us, and it’s available to us. No one is entitled to more wisdom than anyone
else in this room. No one here is
entitled to understanding God’s heart or God’s leading more than anyone else in
this room. I have no greater approach to
the Lord than anybody in this room. My
approach to Jesus Christ is through his blood, I don’t have an access other
than the access that everybody else in this room has, I’m as dependent on those things as everyone. You know, Jesus said they loved darkness more than light, and they
didn’t believe in the name of the only begotten Son of God, you know, that’s
the approach all of us has. It’s interesting, it’s going to say this, as
we move on in Proverbs, it’s going to say ‘Who hath ascended up into heaven, or
descended? who hath gathered the wind in his
fists? Who hath bound the waters in a
garment? Who hath established all the
ends of the earth? What is his name, and
what is his Son’s name, if thou canst tell?’ isn’t that interesting, in
Proverbs? Jesus said, ‘they
are condemned because they didn’t believe in the name of the only begotten Son
of God.’ ‘What is his name, and what is his Son’s name?’ his challenge is right
there. So, we have Jesus Christ, we have
access to wisdom, to knowledge, to understanding, his instruction…[transcript
of a connective expository sermon on Proverbs 2:1-22 and Proverbs 3:1-20, given
by Pastor Joe Focht, Calvary Chapel of Philadelphia, 13500 Philmont Avenue,
Philadelphia, PA 19116]
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