Untitled Sermon

The Wisdom That Helps Us

Introduction (Text: )

WHY ARE WE STUDYING THE BOOK OF PROVERBS? Because we need more than ethical principles. We need new hearts. We need wisdom deep within, at an intuitive level, as we hurry from one complex decision to the next, moment by moment, in the concrete realities of our daily lives. Without God’s wisdom, many difficulties in life will remain confusing and threatening. With God’s wisdom entering our hearts, we get the hang of how life really works, and we come alive more and more. Irenaeus, the early Christian theologian, famously said, “The glory of God is man fully alive.” That is where wants to take us.

The wisdom of offered to deliver us from evil. It offered protection. But this glowing chapter 3 is so positive. It is an education in life at its best—how to live well in every area, at home, at work, all around. In , God is showing us the way into shalom (v. 2), “prosperity” (v. 2), and “health” (v. 8). This is not a matter of earning God’s love. As in , the passage begins with “My son” in verse 1. God is speaking to us as his beloved ones, his adopted children. He was not stuck with us. He chose us, because he loves us, and now he is coaching us in how we can be fully alive, for his glory.

We must remember that the rewards God offers us here in are good. He will give them out to his wise children, as he sees fit. But every believer’s life is complicated. God sends us pain too. Verses 11, 12 are clear that God disciplines us. God sends both earthly blessings and earthly sorrows.

Think of Jesus. He both suffered at the cross and prospered in the resurrection. And the resurrection is the prosperity you will want when your health utterly fails, as it will, and very soon. If your story is limited to the blessings of the here and now, you are in trouble, because your vats bursting with wine will also run dry. But if your life in this world is only the title page to your eternal story, and God also gives you some barns and vats for the present, okay. Just be sure you set your heart not on the gift, which will certainly fail you, but on the Giver, who will certainly never fail you.

The passage is organized around two themes: the shalom God gives (vv. 1–4) and the trust God demands (vv. 5–8). That is obvious. But look more closely. Do you see how the wise Father links his counsel with incentives all along the way? For example, consider verses 1 and 2.

Step by step, the father gives his counsel and then adds an incentive. He is not saying, “Do this because I say so.” He is saying, “Do this because it will help you.” This is the gospel for sinners whom God treats as his own dear children, guiding us, counseling us, urging us on, blessing us. How does he want to help us?

#1: The Shalom God Gives ()

What is the Father saying? “Pay attention. Pay attention to me. You’re going to pay attention to something. But only my teaching will lead you into shalom, wholeness, peace.” God is not saying we have to be smart. In fact, if we are wise in our own eyes, that is a problem (v. 7). It is okay to be incompetent. But we do have to pay attention to his gospel and its implications—his teaching and his commandments.

In the second line of verse 1, the word “keep” means more than “obey”; it means “guard, maintain vigilance.” “Let your heart guard my commandments.” Your heart is your security system. And every day thieves are trying to rob you of length of days and years of life and peace. Elsewhere the Bible calls them “idols.” What are they? Just obsolete ideas that cannot help because they are made up. Our own hearts produce them. For example, ask yourself, “What life scenario will make me say, ‘I have finally arrived’? What does ‘arrival’ look like to me?”

Whatever that scenario is, if Christ is not the life-giving center, your heart has already been penetrated by a life-robbing idol. There is a reason why the sage is telling us to stay alert. When we forget Christ, we are not released into freedom; we submit to false teachings that fill our lives with regret. For example, if you feel that you will finally “arrive” through your career, then you can never relax, because you are literally working for your salvation. If you believe your family will “make” your existence, your “arrival” is insecure, because your kids will break your heart. However you define your shalom, if it is not Christ, then it is an idol, demanding your all but giving nothing.

If you obey it, it will break its promises. If you fail to obey it, it will punish you. Here is the point. Our problem is not just our wandering wills; our problem is our false beliefs. Our minds give credit to lies. That is why our Father is saying, “Stay alert to what you’re believing moment by moment. My teaching alone can make you lie down in green pastures and beside still waters. Pay attention to the gospel of the finished work of Christ for sinners. If you’ll guard my teaching with your heart, you will experience it as your true shalom” ().

The key here is “love and faithfulness.” Those words describe God himself (). What are we counting on about God? We are staking everything on God’s being steadfastly loving and faithful to us forever through Christ, because he promised to be. The sage is saying to us, “You know that’s who God is. He told you so in the Bible. Okay, let who God is change you.”

The truth is, God is who he is, so that we can become more like him. And after all, isn’t that what we want? A person of steadfast love and faithfulness can be trusted. You have nothing to fear from such a person. You have everything to admire in such a person. God is in that person. And he wants to make you more like himself.

So many people have been let down by Christians. They do not believe anymore, because they did not see the reality of God in God’s people. They saw people wearing crosses around their necks but without binding steadfast love and faithfulness around their necks. The fraudulence of that makes people angry. And they have a right to be angry.

So the Father is saying here to his children, “My steadfast love and faithfulness to sinners—let that be your persona. Wear that reality in public, because it’s who Jesus is. I want you to be like him right out in the open, for other sinners to see and have hope.” When people see Jesus in us, we find favor and good success. There is no other way. We would not want it any other way.

That then is the shalom God gives. It is both personal (vv. 1, 2) and social (vv. 3, 4). How do we get there? Here is how:

#2: The Trust God Demands ()

These are the most famous verses in Proverbs. What are they saying? They are saying that our confidence is not some impersonal ethic but the Lord Jesus Christ himself. And the kind of trust he deserves and demands is wholehearted trust: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart.”

This Hebrew verb translated “trust” is cognate with an Arabic verb that means to throw oneself down on one’s face, to lie down spread-eagle in complete reliance—to make it as graphic as I can, to do a belly-flop on God with all our sin and all our failure and all our fears. We stake everything on the gospel promises of God. If God fails us, we are damned. If God comes through, we are saved forever. Real trust is that blunt and daring and simple.

But how can you tell if your trust is wholehearted? None of us wants to be halfhearted. Today we want to be all-out for Christ. So let’s examine ourselves. Here are three diagnostics for wholehearted trust in the Lord.

First, do you let the Bible overrule your own thinking? It says in verse 5, “lean not on your own understanding.” Do you merely agree with the Bible, or do you obey the Bible? If you merely agree with the Bible, then your response is not obedience but coincidence. It’s just that the prejudices you have soaked up from your culture happen to line up with the Bible at that point. But what do you do when the Bible contradicts what you want to be true?

If you are looking in the Bible for excuses to do what you want anyway, you have in fact rejected God. But if you trust the Lord, you will let the Bible challenge your most cherished thoughts and feelings. The wonderful thing is, the Lord cares about your questions and problems. He wants to speak into your life in ways that will help you. If you will trust him wholeheartedly, you will let him teach you.

Second, do you believe someone somewhere without Jesus will still go to Heaven? Do people really need Jesus to have peace with God? Or is it okay with God if they’re just sincere, well-meaning people? If you think so, you are probably putting yourself into that scenario, because you are not sure about Jesus. You are not trusting Jesus to save you; you are hoping Jesus will flatter you. But if you trust the Lord entirely, you will also trust him exclusively, as your only Savior, as anyone’s only Savior.

Third, when was the last time you took a risk to obey Christ? When was the last time you diminished your future—socially, financially, professionally—for his sake? When was the last time your life looked obviously different from the life of someone who does not trust Jesus at all? If you never surprise an unbelieving friend by your sacrifices for Christ, it is probably because what you are living for is the same earthly payoff he is living for. But if you trust the Lord entirely, you will also trust him exhaustively, across the whole of life. You will not be a fragmented person. You will not think piecemeal.

You will (verse 6 literally translated) “know him” in all your ways. Then he promises to direct the course of your life straight on to where you want to go. “He will make straight your paths” is a wonderful assurance. If you will let Jesus rule as Lord over the whole of your life, he will so enter into your story and so make straight your paths that all things will work together for your good. Will you trust him with all your heart?

Here is the price—if we can call it that—here is the price we pay to walk with God in a way that really helps us ().

The Father is warning us against a spirit of self-assurance. It is the opposite of trust in the Lord, and it brings no healing and refreshment. Maybe you remember Frank Sinatra’s old song, “My Way”:

And now the end is near, and so I face the final curtain

My friend, I’ll say it clear, I’ll state my case of which I’m certain

I’ve lived a life that’s full, I traveled each and every highway

And more, much more than this, I did it my way

Yes there were times, I’m sure you knew

When I bit off more than I could chew

But through it all, when there was doubt, I ate it up and spit it out

I faced it all and I stood tall, and did it my way

For what is a man, what has he got?

If not himself, then he has naught

To say the things he truly feels and not the words of one who kneels

The record shows I took the blows, and did it my way.

That’s stupid. But it has over three million views on YouTube. We glorify the know-it-all who does it his own way. But the Bible says, “Do you see a person wise in their own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for them” (). A spirit of self-assurance will destroy you and everyone you love. It cannot work. The universe will not cooperate with our arrogant self-centeredness. But fearing the Lord and turning away from evil—calling sin sin and turning from it—is healing and refreshment. Notice that. It’s not just that you will avoid pain; you will enjoy the positive energy of healing and refreshment.

Here is the irony. The more you fear the Lord, the less you will fear man. The more you depend on the Lord, the more independent you will be. The more you resemble Christ, the more an individual you will be. The more you obey him, the freer you will be. Life will work for you with healing and refreshment.

You probably have a to-do list for this coming week. Here are the priorities God wants at the top of your list in terms of urgency. #1: Fear the Lord. #2: Turn away from evil. #3: As time permits, breathe. That is the urgency of your life this week. It will add greatness to your life. It will add life to your life. It will save you from a wasted life. If you want your life to count now and forever for Christ, here is all you need to do. Fear the Lord. Turn away from evil. Do that alone, and your life will be magnificent.

Ortlund, R. C., Jr. (2012). Preaching the Word: Proverbs—Wisdom that Works. (R. K. Hughes, Ed.) (pp. 59–66). Wheaton, IL: Crossway.