Latest / HBCWestminster / Proverbs 2:1-22 Proverb's Promise of Protection Part Three 7.21.19

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Proverbs 2:1-22 Proverb's Promise of Protection Part Three 7.21.19 · HBCWestminster

• 0:00
  I'm going to read our text, and we're finishing chapter 2. We've been plugging along through chapter 2 the last several weeks, but I'm going to read verses 6 through verse 22, and then we'll pray and begin. Proverbs 2 and verse 6. For the Lord gives wisdom. From His mouth come knowledge and understanding. He stores up sound wisdom for the upright. He is a shield to those who walk in integrity, guarding the paths of justice and watching over the way of His saints.
• 0:30
  Then you will understand righteousness and justice and equity, every good path, for wisdom will come into your heart and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul. Discretion will watch over you. Understanding will guard you, delivering you from the way of evil, from the men of perverted speech, who forsake the paths of uprightness to walk in the ways of darkness, who rejoice in doing evil and delight in the perverseness of evil, men whose paths are crooked and who are devious in their ways. So you will be delivered from the forbidden woman.
• 0:59
  From the adulteress with her smooth words who forsakes the companion of her youth and forgets the covenant of her God. For her house sinks down to death and her past to the departed. None who go to her come back, nor do they regain the paths of life. So you will walk in the way of the good and keep to the paths of the righteous. For the upright will inhabit the land and those with integrity will remain in it. But the wicked will be cut off from the land and the treacherous.
• 1:29
  We'll be rooted out of it. Let's pray. Living and faithful spirit, the God in whom we live and move and have our being, the God who is made known to us in the person of Jesus Christ, bless us as we wait on you this day. Lord, I ask that you remove from our minds and hearts whatever impediments may hinder our worship or dampen our joy. Increase within us, God, that holy longing.
• 2:05
  for closeness to you which can open our lives to fuller delight and to a deeper commitment lord by you and through you and for you may our lives publish your praises may our hymns and prayers our searching thoughts and our hearing of the scriptures be pleasing in your sight oh lord our rock and our redeemer and it's in the name of christ jesus we pray amen amen well we have slowed our study
• 2:37
  of the book of Proverbs to narrow our focus on chapter two, what formally might be called the conditional promises of wisdom's blessings, what we've called the ifs and the thens of biblical wisdom. We said that if we are receptive to the word of God, hearing with our ears, digging out our ears to hear the truth, and if we respond to it by treasuring the scriptures, inclining our hearts and calling out to the Lord for understanding.
• 3:07
  And if we are resolute in our mining, our mining out of its truths, then the Lord will bless us with understanding and not just with trivial facts, but with heart knowledge that will affect our everyday lives. He will give us knowledge both of the world and of himself, and he will shield our testimonies and his reputation by giving us the grace to walk in integrity. This morning, we asked the question, are all lifestyles
• 3:39
  Created equal. Are there life paths which, if chosen, will more likely produce happiness and longevity? And is it possible to waste your life? Our culture would argue that any choice you make is a good choice. Anything you are passionate about and devoted to is good for you and right for you. Follow your heart, they might say.
• 4:11
  Any path you take ends with you being blessed. It seems as though the only people who are willing to admit the truth about life are life insurance agents. I took out a life insurance policy a couple of years ago. I wanted to ensure that I was doing what I was supposed to do to make sure that Hallie and my boys would be taken care of if something horrible happened to me. And the process is funny.
• 4:44
  If you've walked through that, you'll agree. They ask all kinds of personal questions. Do you smoke? How often? Do you drink? How often? Do you exercise? How often? Do you have a criminal record? How often do you receive speeding tickets? Do you travel? Where to? How much money do you make? How much money do you have?
• 5:21
  what's your waist size? That's a real one, right? They ask, and then you give them a number. And then the weird lady that you've never met standing in your kitchen says, I happen to have a tape measure. Do you mind if I verify that? It's true. That's exactly, and she gets out her tape measure, and she runs it around your waist, and you're standing there in your kitchen like, I didn't know we were going to do this today. And she says, you weren't exactly telling the truth, were you?
• 5:57
  Can you imagine if I told that woman, you know, those are personal questions. My personal choices shouldn't make any difference to you. How dare you imply that what I do with my own life might actually be wrong? You can't judge me. To which she would reply, then find a different insurance agent. Why do they ask those questions? Because it's obvious that your lifestyle determines your longevity. Not all decisions are right.
• 6:33
  It is possible to actually throw your life away. It is possible to make decisions that end with you being miserable and will ultimately cut your life short. And notice again the final promise that Proverbs makes. Look again at chapter 2, verse 20.
• 6:55
  Look at the promise he ends with. So you will walk in the way of the good and keep to the paths of the righteous for the upright will inhabit the land and those with integrity, what does it say? Will remain. They'll last a long time. On the flip side, the wicked, verse 22 says, will be cut off. Will be cut off from the land and the treacherous be rooted out of it.
• 7:25
  Now, we're going to pick up in verse 8, where we left off last week, with the fourth of the thens, the fourth of the conditional promises that are offered if we will be receptive to God's word and respond to it and be resolute in our mining out of its treasures, its truths. What is the fourth thing that we will be promised? And the fourth from verse 8 is that we will be watched over. Look again at verse 8, guarding the paths of justice, watching over.
• 7:55
  The way of his saints. You will be watched over. You ever feel the precarious nature of life? You know, most of the time it feels as though we kind of flit through our lives blissfully unaware of the imminent danger posed to our souls at nearly every turn. We treat sin so recklessly, so casually.
• 8:23
  As though sin were like a playful puppy whose little puppy teeth couldn't possibly puncture our thick skin. When in reality, sin is an entire pack of ravenous wolves waiting to descend upon us at the smallest opportunity. And we live our lives, if we're honest, blissfully ignorant. When my son Chase, who is now nine, was just a tiny kid.
• 8:53
  Just a tiny baby, maybe a year old. He liked to sit in those little saucer things like a little jumper deal, you know. Then he'd play with all the rattles and toys and all that. You sit him down in the little bucket, you know. Then he can bounce and do his thing. And it kind of makes sure that your kid can't go mobile.
• 9:12
  You know, so once you stick him in that thing, you're like, OK, every two minutes when I look up, he's going to be in that thing. You know, he'll have fun and he can't get out. And so we stuck him in that thing and he enjoyed playing in it. But he was sitting right inside of our front door, the front door of our old house.
• 9:27
  It was a jar at the time, and he's sitting there because it was a nice, cool day outside. So we were enjoying the breeze, and he's sitting there inside, and he's just playing and unaware of anything else in the world. And we had a next-door neighbor at the time named Nancy, next-door Nancy. And so she was a single woman. She lived by herself. And we got to know her over the years, and our friendship was casual. It wasn't close.
• 9:52
  But Nancy lived by herself, and so she decided that she was going to buy a dog. And she did buy a dog. It was a large dog, a very large and very angry German Shepherd. This thing was big, big, big dog, and just not a friendly dog. And one of the days, Nancy was coming out to check her mail, as she often did in the middle of the afternoon. Came out to check her mail. The door was open. The dog came out into the front yard, and the dog was rooting around in their front yard.
• 10:20
  I was standing inside of our house, saw the door was open, saw the dog outside and then saw the dog pause, look through our front door and see Chase. Chase was sitting there right inside of our front door and I could tell the dog had spotted him. The dog made this weird growling sound, turned, got onto its haunches and made a beeline for Chase just inside of our front door. I saw that and the thing is snarling and coming at him, you know.
• 10:49
  I saw it from inside the house and so now it's a race to the front door, right? That thing came booking up our porch, up our walkway, into our porch, got halfway inside the door when I made it to the door and grabbed that big old oak heavy door and slammed that thing shut on its neck. Am I sorry? No. You guys, I put the hurt on that dog.
• 11:22
  It made a yelp and a cry. I continued pushing against that door, right? Nancy's running up the walk. Danny, I'm so sorry. Danny, I'm so sorry. Danny, I'm so sorry. I'll never let him outside again. Be sure that you don't. I let the dog go. It came out. It was fine. It was fine. Am I sorry? No.
• 11:48
  You know, you can imagine our lives being lived in this little one-year-old toddler saucer, and we're playing with our rattles, and we're spinning and jumping and having a merry time, completely ignorant of the fact that there really are wolves that really would eat us, that there really are enemies. In fact, the Bible says that Satan is not a little red dude in a unitard.
• 12:18
  right? With a goatee and a pitchfork. That's not how it describes him. Describes him as a lion prowling, looking for somebody to devour, just waiting for the opportunity where the front door is left open. And we think about verse eight. I mean, think about this. If we will apply the words of God to our lives, one of the promises that is made is that the Lord himself will watch over our souls. That's what verse eight says.
• 12:46
  Standing inside the front door, standing guard, we have no idea, I think sometimes, of the protection and provision of our Lord for our souls. Slamming the door shut on the neck of whatever dares to stick its head in. Praise God for the provision and protection that is promised to His saints. Amen? Fourth, here's fifth, verse nine.
• 13:17
  Fifth says we will understand right from wrong. Look at verse nine. Then you will understand righteousness and justice and equity, every good path. And we've said before that wisdom is not just having a high IQ, but rather having a moral understanding of good and evil. Wisdom, true wisdom is the ability to see life in the world from God's perspective and then to act accordingly. Now we know this to be true, but not.
• 13:44
  Not all the cleverest people on earth are always the right people on earth. The smartest people are not often right. When the Apostle Paul said to the Corinthians that God does not call many who are rich, powerful, and intelligent, he actually said that to the church. You know, I understand that God doesn't call very many smart people to the kingdom. He was not offering to that church a compliment. Can you imagine receiving that letter?
• 14:17
  It's okay, Highland. God doesn't call very many smart people. Like, wait a minute, I think I know what you mean. Right? He's not just spouting doctrine. This was personal. Not all of you were of noble birth. Not all of you were powerful. Not all of you were smart. He actually says that in 1 Corinthians. He was reminding them in that moment of the very truths that we've been studying. That fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.
• 14:49
  You can be the smartest person on earth and yet a dunce without recognition of the truths of the gospel. And this is why we will have college professors and authors and television commentators ridicule our faith. It's not because they're dumb. It's because they don't have wisdom. They haven't recognized the beginning, the first step. It has nothing to do with intelligence.
• 15:19
  They can't see right from wrong. The wisdom, the understanding that the Lord promises in verse nine, they haven't taken that step and received. They may be very smart, but they're still wandering around, groping around blindly and in the dark. If you ever feel uneducated, inadequate, unworthy, if you ever feel lacking, then I would say, come join our ranks.
• 15:50
  You who know the Savior, you'll fit right in. But do not think that this gives us a pass on willful ignorance. Scripture commands us to study and to show ourselves approved. Scripture says to love the Lord with our minds and to think deeply on spiritual things. But it warns against the danger of amassing knowledge, knowledge of the world without knowledge of God.
• 16:20
  Jeremiah 9 verse 23 says, let not the wise man boast in his wisdom. Let not the mighty man boast in his might. Let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast about this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord who practices steadfast love, justice and righteousness in the earth. For in these I delight. You want to brag about something? God says, brag about me. You know me. That's all you need.
• 16:48
  It's not about wealth and it's not about power and it's not about riches. He said it's about knowing me. That's fifth, sixth. And verse 10. Verse 10 actually says you'll be happy. You'll lead a pleasant life. Look what verse 10 says. For wisdom will come into your heart and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul. Now make sure that you notice that the text does not say our lives will be easy. Ease of life.
• 17:19
  should never be confused with happiness. It is, after all, very frequently that those who have the easiest lives are also the most miserable. Those who seem to have it made in the shade are sometimes just sunburnt raisins. All seven seasons of The Real Housewives come to mind. These women who have everything except for happiness, everything except for joy,
• 17:53
  grasping, holding on to whatever little vestiges of youth they may have left. They're miserable. They're sunburnt raisins. They even kind of look like raisins. I don't know why that is. Now conversely, consider the attitude of the early apostles. In Acts 4, verse 19, Peter and John answered, whether it is the right and the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, you judge.
• 18:19
  We cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard. And when they heard further testimony, they threatened them. They let them go, finding no way to punishment, no way to punish them because of the people. For all were praising God for what had happened. They're brought in, commanded no longer to preach in the name of the Lord, their God. And they said, we're not going to stop. Do to us whatever you want. And when they left, they left rejoicing. Wait a minute. Why would they rejoice? One page later, Acts chapter five.
• 18:49
  Verse 40, when they had called in the apostles, they beat them. They charged them not to speak in the name of Jesus and then released them. And when they left, they rejoiced that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name of Jesus. When this says that knowledge will be pleasant to your soul, it doesn't mean that your life will be easy, but it does mean that your life will be filled.
• 19:19
  with rejoicing francis chan says this in his book letters to the church expect suffering desire it and rejoice in the midst of it this is our spiritual dna it is our heritage and it is god's plan for the church we are called to be an army of people who are so madly in love with jesus that we are unshakable this is the kind of force that can change the world that's sixth
• 19:52
  You'll be happy seventh and last for the remainder of the chapter. Verses 11, 22 says that you'll be delivered, that you'll be delivered. In fact, it says two different times you'll be delivered. Look at verse 11. Discretion will watch over you. Understanding will guard you. Verse 12, delivering you from the way of evil, from men of perverted speech. Go down to verse 16. So you will be delivered from the forbidden woman.
• 20:20
  There are two specific people our text says we will be delivered from. And the first is the indiscreet man. The indiscreet man. Verses 12 to 15 describe him as perverted. Verse 12 says, we already looked at that. Verse 13 says that he forsakes the path of righteousness, walking in darkness. Verse 14 says that this perverted, indiscreet man rejoices in doing evil. He delights.
• 20:50
  In perverseness, verse 15 says that his paths are crooked and devious, his ways. Perverted, dark, crooked, devious. That perverted speech that he uses in verse 12 literally is, it's the same word as seductive speech. This perverted person would entice us away from the voice of our Father, from the voice of God.
• 21:23
  He would distort reality so that his victims can't think straight. And whether these people mean well or not, whether they actually believe what they're saying or not, does not matter. Their counsel and advice go against the truth of God's word. Anyone who seeks to justify sin or explain away sin because of extenuating circumstances, anyone who calls good bad and bad good is a perverse.
• 21:55
  Speaker leading us down dark paths, paths of uprightness that God would call us to. He avoids. He follows paths which lead only to hurt. And let me tell you, just for a moment, I just brainstormed this week and tried to figure out what are his most common used phrases. What is his script? Are you ready for this? And listen, you guys, his script hasn't changed.
• 22:24
  In generations, if you are right now sitting in here in your 80s, then his script was the same 60 years ago as it is if you're sitting in here right now 20 years old. His script hasn't changed. It is the same language. You ready? It's not that big a deal. Not that big a deal. You can handle it. If they loved you, they'd let you do what you want. If they loved you, they'd be happy for you.
• 22:56
  Here's one. If it were bad, they wouldn't have legalized it. Sorry. He would say, follow your heart. Treat yourself. Get whatever it is you want. Swearing is just a word. It's not wrong if it doesn't hurt anyone. How can they call themselves Christians? They keep telling you what to do. You could trust the Spirit of God within you to give you discernment to figure out.
• 24:05
  If what people are telling you is right or not, you can trust the spirit of God within you to tell you, is this right or not? And it is possible if we live in unconfessed, willful, repeated, frequent sin, it is possible to silence the spirit of God's voice in our lives. That is possible where you can't hear him anymore. And you're still.
• 24:31
  A son or daughter of God, that hasn't changed. You're still forgiven, but it is possible to sin so frequently and just to leave those checks unaccounted for, it is possible to silence eventually the spirit of God. This is what the Bible calls quenching the spirit. Don't quench the spirit, Ephesians 4 would say, because you won't be able to hear his voice anymore. But if you were keeping short accounts with the Lord and confessing your sin and asking him to guide and direct you, guess what he will do? He will guide and direct you. And when you come across,
• 25:03
  Men or women who are speaking this way and you're like, I can't tell. Lord, what is the truth? He will tell you the truth. He will. A couple of weeks ago, our family was in Cheyenne, Wyoming for a baseball tournament. It feels like every weekend we got baseball tournaments, but there we were in Cheyenne, Wyoming, playing baseball. We were there with the baseball team and their families. We were all staying in a hotel up in Cheyenne, Wyoming. And all of the boys, we had 17, I think, boys at the time. Two of my boys were there. Pearson and Zach were both there.
• 25:36
  and 17 boys, and they were all playing baseball either in the mornings or evenings or sometimes both, and in the middle, you know, going to the movies or swimming in the swimming pool and all this. One of the times they were down at the swimming pool, and there was a man there by himself at the swimming pool looking as if he was talking on his phone, looking as if he was searching the Internet, whatever, I don't know. But he had his phone up like this, and he kept touching it, and it turns out he was taking videos of all of our boys. I mean, what do you do, right? You dads?
• 26:15
  Lucky I didn't knock his teeth out, you know. But I walked over to him, and I did. I confronted him. And one of our boys asked him to stop, and he continued doing it. And so I walked over, and I said, listen, you've got to put that away. You're all done. Well, what are you talking about? I'm not doing anything wrong. No, you are. And he said, I said, no. I said, I think what you call that is perverted. I think you're a pervert. It's time to go. Get out.
• 26:45
  It wasn't my hotel. It's time to go, dude. You're out. You can't tell me that. He started getting all mad, defensive. He said, you are extremely rude. And I said, well, that is definitely not the first time I've been called that. And I said, yeah, well, okay. And he said, you don't have any Christian love at all. Oh, okay. And he said, I'm a Christian man.
• 27:17
  Okay. And then he said, and I'm the pastor of a church. Now all of the boys can hear. They know who I am. You know, I mean, I've been with these boys. So they all, as soon as that happens, they're really, you know, I don't know if all of the boys know the Lord. They don't all go to church. As soon as he said that, they all kind of smirk. And they all look at me. And I just said, you know what? I am too. Except I'm the kind of pastor who doesn't take pictures of boys in their swimsuits. Time to go. I can't believe you're rude. You know, and he goes trucking out.
• 27:54
  And I thought, you know what, Lord? You know. You know when something's not right. Right? That's an extreme example, okay? And everybody in here would be like, nope, get out. I'm a Christian man. Oh, okay, then feel free to come back in. You know, like, well, no, you liar, get out. If you know the Lord, shame on you. And if you're the pastor of a church, tell me which one, because I got a call to make.
• 28:25
  Get out. You know there is something in you. Isn't it true? You know the spirit is moving. The spirit is at work. The spirit tells you right from wrong. You know if the words that are being told to you are right or wrong. Do a quick check. Lord, is what this man's saying true? Now listen, I know that it's not true. How do I know? Because if the same situation was reversed.
• 28:49
  If I was taking pictures and you guys, if they were completely innocent, honestly, completely innocent. And somebody came to me and said, I believe that you're a pervert and you're taking pictures of my sons and you need to stop right now. My response would not be to defend myself, right? Oh my word. I am so sorry. That was not my intention at all. Here's my phone. Delete anything you want. I am so sorry. Not.
• 29:19
  I'm not doing anything wrong, right? You know the Spirit of God is within you. And so listen, when you start hearing the script, when the script comes up, it's not that big a deal. You can handle it. If they love you, let you do what you want. Follow your heart. Treat yourself. Get what you want. How can that be true? It happened so long ago. How can that be true? How can they know that those things happened? How can they call themselves Christian? When that script starts coming up and the Spirit is saying, no, no, no, no, no, something's not right. Then guess what? Something's not right.
• 29:49
  If the spirit is telling you something's not right, trust the spirit of God within you. This says in verse 11, discretion will watch over you, guarding you, delivering you from the way of evil for men of perverted speech. Trust the spirit of God within you. You'll be delivered from the indiscreet man. Second, it goes on to say that you will be delivered from the indecent woman. Look at verse 16. So you will be delivered from the forbidden woman, from the adulteress with her smooth.
• 30:19
  who forsakes the companion of her youth and forgets the covenant of her God. For her house sinks down to death, her paths to the departed, none who go to her come back, nor do they regain the paths of life. Now this is the first time that we meet the forbidden woman in Proverbs, but it will not be the last. Second in frequency only to Princess Wisdom herself is the adulterous woman.
• 30:50
  She will be given a lot of airtime because nothing else will separate a man or woman from God faster than seeking happiness where it cannot be found. We see that her purpose is clearly to rival the father for his son's affections using smooth speech, subtlety. She wants to vie for the son's attention.
• 31:16
  Take your eyes off of the Father and put them on me. Close your ears to the Father and listen to me. No one on earth was more familiar with the danger of adultery and its consequences than the author of this chapter. 1 Kings chapter 11 chronicles the life of King Solomon saying that he had a thousand women.
• 31:41
  A thousand of them. If that is true, you guys, he had wives whose names he couldn't remember. He undoubtedly had children whom he had never met. You can imagine him looking back at the end of his life and saying, that was a mess. Don't do it that way. In fact, 1 Kings 11 not only talks about the thousand women, it also says that he began setting up monuments.
• 32:16
  temples worship sites on every high hill in israel each one dedicated to his wives gods you tell me that adultery won't pull your heart away from the lord yes it will yes it will adultery is never in the will of god we'll talk about this more in a future weeks adultery is never in the will of god never it will always end in a heart that is distant from the lord always
• 32:48
  Now, I'm not saying and make sure that you hear this. And I know that there are some people right now who are thinking, man, my life was hurt by this very thing. If that's you, I'm not saying that it can't be repented of and forgiven. The Bible is so clear about that forgiveness is offered. And I'm not saying that God in his infinite wisdom cannot still work all things for the good of those who love him. Solomon, after all, was the son of Bathsheba, the result of an adulterous.
• 33:22
  Relationship! But adultery is never God-honoring. Sometimes none are so deceived as adulterers, thinking that the end of this path is what will produce happiness and life and joy. The adulterer of Proverbs 2 had forsaken her husband. Not only that, it says the companion of her youth, verse 17, but not only had she forsaken him, she had also forgotten the covenant of her God. It will only ever lead its victims to do the same.
• 34:02
  I know this is heavy. I know. I even told the worship team this morning as we were praying, you guys, when I said, we're going to study the book of Proverbs, I wasn't thinking this is what I had to talk about, okay? Proverbs chapter 1 talks about murder and going along with gangs who murder people for money. I wasn't thinking mercenary Proverbs, okay, when I picked it up. Proverbs 2, talking about perversion. And they're talking about adultery. This is not what I imagined. But nevertheless.
• 34:30
  Here is a wise man who had done everything who says, believe me, it doesn't work out. If you're having an affair, if you're thinking about having an affair, if you're tempted even by the thought of having an affair, the only God-honoring response is to stop, repent, and confess. Maybe you say, well, what if I do? Is there any really good reason to do it God's way? And we end where we started, verse 20.
• 35:07
  So you will walk in the way of the good and keep to the paths of the righteous. The upright will inhabit the land. Those with integrity will remain longevity and joy, but the wicked will be cut off from the land and the treacherous will be rooted out of it. Don't fall for the lie that all lifestyles are created equal. They are not. And don't believe the liars who say that no choice is the wrong choice, that you should live your life however you want.
• 35:37
  Whatever makes you happy, it's not true. The happiest, fullest, and most satisfied we will ever be is when we are obeying and submitting to the will of God and to the Spirit's lead. And as an added bonus, our life insurance premiums will go down. Let me pray. God, thank you. Thank you for this text this morning. And Lord, this is heavy. This was a quiet congregation today, God. I pray, I pray that you would not only...
• 36:11
  not only convict us of sin where we need to repent, but that you would also admonish us and exhort us and even encourage us to walk out of here with hope. Lord, if we're in the dark, then may there be light at the end of the tunnel. May we see the direction that we need to go. And God, I pray, I pray blessing for obedience. And God, I pray immediate blessing for obedience so that we will know with that first step that we are doing it the way you want us to do it.
• 36:43
  God, give us wisdom according to Your Spirit. I pray the truths of these words, Lord, that Your Holy Spirit will guide and direct us and show us what is right and wrong. And God, that we would just trust Him and walk in it. We love You, Lord. We love You. And we're so thankful for this family. And it's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.