They say that the first thing that a public speaker must do is capture the attention of his audience. Well, I think I got it.
Today’s message is another one of those messages that you might feel like it needs a Parental Guidance warning. It reminds me of what the Rabbi’s used to say about the Song of Solomon. They said that no one under 30 years of age should be permitted to read it.
I would assume that you’re not used to this kind of language being used, let alone here in church! It is rather sensual, to the point of making one blush. But at the same time, as we read it, we find that the language is refreshingly direct, isn’t it?
The topic addressed here is one that needs to be spoken to just as directly too. The temptation to an extra-marital affair is a powerful temptation, particularly in today’s sex crazed culture. It is one we can face, whether we are male or female. And many Christian people have fallen into adultery because of this temptation.
The topic is just as necessary today, as it was thousands of years ago. The church is filled with all sorts of immorality. Statistics show that the difference between the church and the rest of the culture with regard to sexual practices is relatively slim.
I have to admit, we as ministers are partially to blame for this. We have not taught what God has called us to teach. As a church, we have been embarrassed to talk about sex. We have seen it as inappropriate to talk about from the pulpit, and we have not spoken about it as openly and frankly as God does here.
But our Heavenly Father does not avoid the subject. He knows how powerful the temptation is. So our God talks candidly about it. God does not want us to fall into the sin of adultery. And in order to help us avoid falling into sexual sin our Lord identifies for us its cause, consequences, and cures.
If you are going to avoid falling into adultery one thing you must understand is adultery’s primary cause.
I. The primary cause of adultery: [1-6]
Looking at verses 1-6 we can ask ourselves, “What causes adultery?”
Well, our first instinct is perhaps to put the blame on the woman who intrudes on the marriage vows. And you can make a strong case for this. I mean just look at her. Look at how our Father describes here in verse 3. She is said to have “lips that drip honey,” and speech that is “smoother than oil.”
In other words, she is a talker, and she is most persuasive. She is described as one who not only let’s her intentions be known, but she comes on strong. Her whole goal is to tantalize and ultimately seduce. She might not be as bold as Potifire’s wife who called out to Joseph “come to bed with me.” She might be more subtle, perhaps starting out with a flirt and then getting stronger as she lures you in.
While it’s no doubt she is in no way innocent in the matter, she is not the main cause of adultery. She’s crafty, yes; she’s implicated in the evil, yes; but the bible does not pinpoint her as the source of blame.
Well, if it is not the woman that is to blame, maybe the cause is the man’s strong sex drive. We all know well a man’s proclivity toward sex. When it comes to physical attraction, we all know that a man’s desires are much stronger than a woman’s. And her words wouldn’t be much bait if he was not drawn in by them, right?
But when you look at our passage you see not even a mention of the man’s sex drive. Certainly, it is assumed. But the passage does not identify it as the real cause of adultery.
If it is not the woman and it is not the man’s sexual urges, what is the primary cause of adultery? You might find this a bit odd (even laughable), but the real cause of adultery is Ignorance.
Look at verses 1-2. We have heard these words over and over, “My son, be attentive to my wisdom; incline your ear to my understanding, that you may keep discretion, and your lips may guard knowledge.”
When it comes to adultery, the problem does not reside in our bodies or in someone else’s body, the problem is in our minds (or perhaps better said: what is not in our minds). We develop an unlawful relationship or practice some deviant sexual behavior, because we have not the considered the Word of God. It is in the Word of God that we “gain discretion.”
Now, again, that may sound completely idiotic, but think it through with me. When we listen to God’s word, what do we hear? We hear about God’s holiness don’t we? When we hear things like “Thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt not steal, etc. we are told something about God, are we not? We are told that he is pure—that he is holy. And we should understand that he has ordered things in a certain way—things are supposed to operate according to his design.
Our problem is not a sex problem, it is a God problem. If we do not incline ourselves towards God’s word, we will not understand what is right and what is wrong. But when we do we will understand. And we will see that any other is “forbidden” (or “strange”) as it says in verse 3.
When we consider how sacred the covenant of marriage is to God we will understand an “innocent flirtation” is not in any way “innocent.” And we will understand that no matter what he or she says, he or she is to be considered an intruder into the bonds of marriage.
If I might speak to you parents in regards to this: If it is true that ignorance is the chief cause of sexual infidelity, then consider how important it is for you to teach your children about who God is and what he says about marriage and sex. If you don’t talk to them, they will not have this first and primary wall of defense fortified.
Our culture gets embarrassed about having “the talk”, but we as Christians are not to have just one “talk” about sex. It is to be a regular part of our parental curriculum. We need not just one talk, but many talks. We don't want them learning what they learn from the world, be it NBC or the locker room. Neither do we want them to hear nothing at all! That's a real and present danger. If your child is ignorant of what God has to say, then you are preparing them for immorality.
And that goes for all of us: We all must incline our ears to what God has to say so that we can really see what is right and wrong. Fidelity to one’s wife begins with fidelity to God. If you are going to avoid falling into that temptation, you have to listen to His word.
When it comes to adultery we must not only though consider its cause, we must also consider its consequences.
II. The painful consequences of adultery: [4-14]
One of the ways we protect ourselves from adultery is by identifying the costs of such an affair. Whenever we have a decision to make we make a list of Pro’s and Con’s. After making such a list we weigh whether or not it would be wise to pursue whatever it is before us.
At first you may see a lot of benefits to an extra-marital affair. But you could say that our Heavenly Father helps us to “see the other side” by putting before us a thought provoking list of Con’s.
Some have deduced more, but I see that there are at least 3 that should make you consider how foolish a choice adultery is. The first con is that adultery has the power to…
A. diminish your life [9]
You see in verse 9 that it says, don’t do this “lest you give your honor to others and your years to the merciless.”
These two lines are parallel and you have to see them together. In this verse a person’s honor is his youthful years. When we start getting old we feel the affects of age, and we lose the grandeur of youthfulness.
As younger people we have more vitality and zest for life. But we may be robbed of that if we choose to give ourselves over to immorality.
We live in a sex crazed culture. People are living promiscuously all over the place. And we see how much that is promoted (on the TV, in music, etc.), what we don’t often see is how the bloom of youth is wilted by sexual promiscuity.
Let me expose a lie you see on TV too. Illicit affairs are always portrayed in such a way that it gives you more out of life. But that’s wrong. It will do just the opposite, it can rob you of some of the best years of your life.
Not only may adultery diminish your life, it may…
B. diminish your wealth
Verse 10 says, “lest strangers take their fill of your strength, and your labors go to the house of a foreigner,
Now I want to admit that I do not know the full import of this verse. We can understand what it means, but I’m not sure we can understand all it’s implications. One’s strength is the means to their financial well being. You work and you get paid for your energies. And the earnings you gain from those labors will likely end up being depleted if you fall into an affair.
Now again, I don’t know all that this implies: Perhaps back then it had to do with paying room and board for your mistress. Perhaps it has to do with funds that might be forfeited due to legal procedures. Maybe it means having to pay alimony if your spouse leaves you. Who knows? But you think about it, you can see a lot of ways that you can loose money over a one night stand. You must remember: if you fill your lusts, but you may be drained financially.
You may diminish your youth, and you may diminish your wealth. But you may also…
C. diminish your joy [11-14]
This is what verses 11-14 speak about. Read with me about the personal grief you may experience:
“and at the end of your life you groan, when your flesh and body are consumed. and you say, "How I hated discipline, and my heart despised reproof! I did not listen to the voice of my teachers or incline my ear to my instructors. I am at the brink of utter ruin in the assembled congregation."
Here you are projected into the future and made to look at yourself agonizing in your later years. You can imagine yourself on your bed, with one foot in the grave groaning. You say, “I’m a fool! I should have listened!”
This is not limited to those who have received sexually transmitted diseases, but it is most vividly portrayed in them. These are people who have really diminished their life, aren’t they? But the one thing they really are deprived of is their joy.
You may have even seen such persons grieving over their exploits. How they are filled with pain because of a foolish choice to live licentiously.
That may be an extreme example. But it is an example that can show you how you can loose your joy when you commit adultery.
Before you go out and have an affair, you need to weigh the costs. And right now, you need to make the decision. Don’t wait until you have been put in a situation where you have to decide. Consider right now the consequences, and make your decision. Is it really worth it?
Our passage gives us the causes and consequences of adultery. But it does not stop there. Our Heavenly Father goes so far as to give us cures.
III. Its prescribed cures [15-23]
By cures I mean “the remedies for adultery.” In other words: what will help you avoid falling into this temptation? What will cure you of any thought of following another man or woman. Verses 15-23 show us that if we are going to remain faithful we have to enjoy the pleasures of marriage
The passage almost makes you blush as you read it, doesn’t it? "Drink water from your own cistern, flowing water from your own well. Should your springs be scattered abroad, streams of water in the streets? Let them be for yourself alone, and not for strangers with you. Let your fountain be blessed, and rejoice in the wife of your youth, a lovely deer, a graceful doe. Let her breasts fill you at all times with delight; be intoxicated always in her love."
Our heavenly Father does not shy away from the fact that sex is to be a wonderful experience. God wants us to find our sexual satisfaction in our spouses, and that without reservation. He gives us no excuse for adulterous affairs, does he? We are virtually commanded to have sex. But he only gives one stipulation: That we satisfy our desires with the one he has given us.
I want to underscore here God’s joy in maritial intimcacy. He created it. And he found it so wonderful that he has even devoted a whole book of the Bible to the subject, wherein the joys of physical love are celebrated.
This is what led the Puritians of old to talk about “Keeping the marriage bed hot!” They knew the glory of what God had created. I know the puritans are typically thought of as prudes, but that’s not the case at all. There is even one case where they excommunicated a man for not fulfilling his marital duties!
I say that only to underscore how weighty a matter this is to God.
And we have to cherish and protect this wonderful institution of marriage. It is being criticized and attacked from every vantage point in our day. We all know the headlines with respect to gays and their (so-called) “Civil Unions.” But think also how marriage is often thought of as the “end of life” for a person. Even the joys of marital bliss are portrayed as “boring” but real excitement is found in promiscuity.
But that is to be the farthest thing from the truth. God created marriage as the appropriate environment for sexual gratification. God has blessed this institution, and has given us wonderful freedoms within it. And We are to take pleasure in it. I might go so far as to say that we are to replicate, in our small human way, the immense pleasure that he takes in his bride, the church.
Having said that, I’d like to take a moment to give a specific application. I would like to speak to you ladies. I know that this passage speaks most directly to the men, but I think that I need to speak to you ladies because very few have in this regard.
Ladies, I know that every bible study that you have done on womanhood has spoken about the importance of being a mother and a homemaker. And that’s good because those two things are despised in our day. But I don’t know of many that have dealt with the duty of being a wife and fulfilling the desires of your man. But this is one of the primary tasks that has been given to you.
As a matter of fact, I think that Paul gets at this in the NT. He says that the older women are to teach the younger women. And they are to teach them to “love their husbands.” I don’t think you can read that and simply talk about making a good meal!
So give attention to this ladies. I want you to understand that this passage is commanding you to go after your man. It’s encouraging you to come on to him and to give yourself whole heartedly to him. It’s telling you that sometimes you need to send the kids outside so that you can just save up energy and think about how you can make your husband intoxicated with your love.
Ladies, the men have a duty to stay faithful to you. I’m not downplaying that. But don’t forget you are his helpmate! So you have the responsibility of helping to keep him faithful. And the best way to do that is to be the lady that turns him on and satisfies his desires.
And let me say this too: I can speak for men since I am one. Men want to be wanted. A lot of men who fall into sexual sin have this as their excuse: “She wanted me” or “she made me feel young again.” A man wants to be desired, just as much as you want to be the object of your man’s affections. And his affections for you will be strengthened through the attention and affection you bestow upon him in the bedroom.
All that is to say that the bedroom is to be a place of physical pleasure. The language here is glorious. It is playful. It is sensual. It is language of pleasure and ecstasy. And we ought to replicate that in our relationships. And when we do, there will be no need for an adulterous relationship.
Conclusion:
In sum, let me remind you that what is spoken of here is to replicate the relationship we have with Christ. The intimacy we have here in worship is something of the intimacy we should have in the bedroom. It is two people who adore each other coming together to celebrate their relationship.
Let our marriages be the same. Let us hear what God has to say about fidelity in marriage, and may we apply it to the glory of His name.
Like a dog that returns to his vomit is a fool who repeats his folly.
Proverbs 26:11 I was once asked to give my testimony at a gathering of young people. I began my talk with this verse because I was also supposed to share with them my favorite verse of Scripture. I then went into a detailed story about my dog, Penny, and how she illustrates the teaching of this verse. I will spare you the gory details though.
I’m sure you are all familiar with the imagery that is used here. You’ve probably seen a dog that has been sickened. Maybe you’ve even wondered how the furry little creature could turn green. You may even be quite familiar with the foul noise that it makes as its stomach begins to lurch. But what is even more putrid than what has been vomited out is that the dog comes back to it. It may avoid it for a little while. It may take a lap around the yard to regain its composure, but it eventually makes its way back to fill its stomach again.
I have to admit that this is one of the most vile pictures in all the Bible. And each of us will probably acknowledge that dogs, while being man’s best friend, are also man’s grossest friend. What possesses them to do this is beyond me. As a friend of mine used to say, “You would think that with how powerful a sniffer they have they would be more choosy about what they go around smelling.” You would think that they would be repulsed by that thing for which they hunger.
But that’s what makes this such a good Proverb. That nasty dog keenly illustrates how inhumane our craving for sin is. And this morning I want to talk about that desire we have. I want to talk about how base our hunger for sin is.
This proverb might be disgusting. But it accurately illustrates how reprehensible and how irrepressible our hunger for sin really is. And when I say that this is reprehensible, I don’t think that I’m even getting close to really describing how hideous it is.
I. How reprehensible our sin is
When you read this passage you cannot help but be nauseated by it. The thing is foul. What do you see when you read this passage? You see the dog there salivating over a bunch of half digested, dog food. Th Dog food is gross enough. But regurgitated dog food is beyond gross. Its grosser than gross. And you have to remember they didn’t have your basic Purina dog chow back when Solomon was writing this! They were probably eating whatever they scavenged off the streets. You should imagine here some mangy little pooch putting his face down into a decomposed bird and ripping out some of its flesh with its teeth, chewing it up and licking his lips. And after it has been half digested, out it comes again with all the acids and whatever else Fido managed to scrounge up in the compost pile.
Dog food is gross enough. But when you think of the real context and what this might look like, that makes it all the more vile!
But to what is that nasty pile of wretch compared? It is compared to our sin. God wants you to realize something about your sin. He wants you to see it for what it really is. He wants you to recognize something of how really grotesque you are and how vile your sins really are!
The shorter catechism is really good on this. The catechism asks, “Are all transgressions of the law equally heinous? Then it answers, “Some sins in themselves, and by reason of several aggravations, are more heinous in the sight of God than others.” That’s a choice word that the Westminster Divines use: heinous. Sin is gross (Atrocious! vile! hideous!). The men of Westminster were acknowledging that, yes, there are some sins that God hates more than others. But don’t forget the fact that every sin, no matter how “small” we may deem it, is utterly repulsive to God.
Every sin is absolutely odious!
We like to say that some sins are lesser than others, don’t we? I mean we almost neutralize how nasty our sins are by comparing them to other sins that are much worse. And it is true. Some sins are more heinous in the sight of God than others. But we like to sanitize ours by making the comparison to other people’s sin. We like to think that our “little” sins are nothing compared to those sins. They almost come out looking like a prime rib, rather than a pasty pile of dog wretch.
But no matter how we try to pretty up our sin, it is still infinitely repugnant. The smallest of our sins is so reprehensible to God that we cannot even begin to imagine how wicked it really is.
That’s why Jesus said, “Whoever causes one of these little ones to sin, it would be better for him to have a millstone hung around his neck and be cast into the sea.” It doesn’t mention any specific sin, does it? It doesn’t say, “if you cause them to commit perjury, then you deserve to drown. But if you only cause them to tell a little white lie, then you only deserve to be water boarded.” No. Jesus doesn’t specify the sin because he wishes to communicate something of how repulsive ANY and EVERY sin is. Sin is sin, and it’s all abhorrent to God. Yes, some sins are worse than others. But all sin is wretched. It is like comparing garbage. Some garbage is more wretched than other garbage, but it is all garbage. You may be in a situation where you are forced to eat garbage and you will say, “Well this one is not as bad as that one.” But you are still eating garbage! And that is gross!
What I’m trying to say is that part of our problem is that we don’t see sin for what it really is. We don’t see it as the contemptible thing that it really is. We don’t see it as God does. To us, the dog’s vomit is an awful thing. But to the dog, he’s saying, “Hmm. It’s not so bad.” To God sin is an abomination. But to us, it’s not that bad.
But that’s the point. We have to pray that God would give us the eyes of Christ. We have to ask God to give us this regard for our evil. Otherwise we will not turn from it in the way we should.
In another place the Shorter Catechism talks about repentance. It says that part of repentance is having “a true sense of his sin.” And it says that repentance consists of “a grief and hatred of his sin.” In other words, repentance involves utter disgust of your sin. Repentance is becoming so repulsed by it that you turn away from it.
And that is what should happen. You need to come to grips with how vile a thing your sin is to God.
But let me also say this. Sin is not just reprehensible because of how vile it is by nature. Part of its repulsive-ness (if I can coin a term) is found in how harmful it is.
This might not be overtly stated in our passage, but I think it is a direct implication that can be drawn. You should ask yourself, “Why did the dog puke in the first place?” It was because something didn’t settle right. Something in his stomach wasn’t supposed to be there. It was making him sick. So, in order to be rid of the irritation, his stomach convulsed and he heaved it up.
You’ve all seen this. The dog goes out in the yard and eats a bunch of grass. The next thing you know they are out there hacking it up. You yell out, “What’s going on with you? Why did you eat the grass, you stupid dog?”
So you need to realize that sin is not just gross, it is harmful. It is harmful because it is gross. And you need to be aware that every time you sin it is like eating grass. We are doing something that causes us harm.
Young people, let me ask you a question. Do you like to sin? OF COURSE YOU DO! You love it! Why else do you do it? You would never do anything you don’t want to do. And why is it that you like to sin? It is because whatever it is is attractive and it offers you some temporary pleasure. Face it, making fun of your brother is fun, isn’t it? It’s a real whoot.
But I want you to remember that while it may tickle you for a moment, but its pleasure won’t last. It will come back to bite you. Its bitterness will cause you some kind of grief in the end.
That’s why a lot of people I see are so miserable. It’s not just because they are surrounded by miserable people. It is because they have not been able to overcome their own sin. If they would just begin to follow what God says about relationships, then they would find that their lives would not be so dog gone miserable.
Let me put it this way: Sin is like the venom of a snake. A number of years ago there was a man by the name of Frank Buckland who made it his life’s aim to study snakes. He engaged a professional viper catcher to collect some for him. The biggest viper in the catch was then chosen for study. While the professional held the animal the scientist placed a glass slide before him. Immediately the viper struck at it with its fangs. When the scientist pulled the glass away he found that the snake had left two translucent drops of fluid. He put it under his microscope and was amazed at what he saw. When he looked through the scope he saw slender fiber-like lines crossing each other. It resembled the crystals of a morning frost on your car windows. But in the beauty of the aurora there was the deadly venom of the viper.
Sin often presents itself as a beautiful and alluring thing. But despite its outward appeal, there is much misery contained within it.
And that’s why you purge it, isn’t it? I mean that’s the point of the passage, right? The dog let’s go of the thing that it ate and walks away—at least for a while. And we’ll all agree: Our sin is gross. We can’t stand it. It causes us pain. So we get rid of it. At least for a while.
And that’s where we can transition to our second point. We may come to a point where we find our sin repulsive, but we can’t avoid it. We all know that sin is reprehensible, but we cannot shake it. We cannot break with it or the pattern of going after it again. The passage is very clear in this and shows us just how irrepressible it is.
II. How irrepressible our sin is
It uses the illustration of this dog coming back to his vomit. And we are just like that dog in that we come right back to our sin—our folly.
Sure, he takes a walk around the yard. At first his ears are back and his tail is between his legs. Oddly enough you can even see through all that fur that he even looks a little green. But it’s not but a minute later that he has recovered and is feeling all jolly again. And he is right back where he started. He gives it a little sniff. He is so tantalized that he gives it a lick. Then before you know it he’s gobbling it all down again.
It is so inconceivable that he would do that. But that’s exactly the way we are! How many times have we turned away from our sin? How many times have we vowed, “Lord! I’m never going to do that again!” But then we find ourselves right back where we started. It is like a magnet, and we’re pulled right back.
And we are just like that dog giving it a little sniff. At first we say, “Oh, its not that bad.” Or maybe we hear the little voice in the back of our heads—our conscience says, “Oh, I shouldn’t.” But the attraction is too much. Before we know it we dive right in again. Hardly any time has passed before we are broken our pledge to stay away from that sin.
Tell me: How many times have you pledged to stop feeding your face like a glutton, but then just a few hours later you right back at the cupboard looking for something to eat? Ladies, how many times have you said, “I’m going to stop spending my money so erratically.”? You said, “I’m going to stop buying things I don’t need and I’m going to be more fugal.” But before you know it you’ve swiped the credit card and you’ve wasted what you were going to save.
Or guys, how many of you have vowed that you weren’t going to let your lust get the best of you? But in no time flat you’re right back at the computer clicking on sites you know you shouldn’t. Or you’ve got the images dancing around in your head.
You can’t get away from it can you? It’s an addiction. It’s just impossible to stop. These things just seem to have a pull on you. You feel so powerless. You felt so zealous at first, but then you are right back where you started.
You know, in a sick sort of way, it’s comforting to know that the Apostle Paul had the same problem. In Romans 7 the Apostle Paul admits that he has some besetting sins that he deals with. In verses 14 and following we read how even the apostle Paul succumbed to the same old sins time and again. He was just as vulnerable as we are. He said, “I do not understand my own actions. I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.” He even compares it to a war being waged within him. And he cries out in anguish, “What a wretched man that I am!
It is like the story that has been told of a blacksmith who was taken prisoner. A famous blacksmith was once taken prisoner and thrown into a dungeon. As he sat in the dungeon he began to examine the chain in which he was bound to see if he could find a flaw in it that would make it easier to be broken. His hope was in vain. As he examined it he found by the marks that he himself was its maker. All his life he had boasted that his chains he forged were unbreakable.
That is how it is with a sinner. Our own hands forge the sin that binds us. And it is a chain that no human hand can break.
If our chains are going to be broken, we have to admit what the Apostle Paul admits: we cannot save ourselves. In Romans 7 Paul cried out, Who will save me from this body of death?” And his immediate response is, “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
We are sin-oholics, and we can do nothing to break the chain themselves. We are so inextricably bound to our sin. We cannot escape it by our own power. We need someone to come in and pry us away. The only way to stop the dog from eating its vomit is if you grab him by the collar and pull him away.
So too for us. The only way we will cease our sin is if the Lord comes in by His Spirit and delivers us from this body of death. Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord. He is the one who saves us from this body of death. He is the one who sends the Holy Spirit into our lives to grab us and yank us away from our sin.
You see, Jesus not only saves us from the condemnation of sin. He also saves us from its power. Of course, it might not happen all at once. And there are some instances where we will never experience complete victory in this life. But we do have one we can resort to. Christ will one day come again, and he will loose the bonds that now chain us. And by his grace he is even now weaning his children away from their sin.
Conclusion:
There is a sweet scene in John Bunyan’s famous work, Pilgrim’s Progress. The main figure, Christian, has come to the house Beautiful and he’s taken to several different rooms and each room has a different scene which is used to pass on a spiritual truth. One room that they came too was filled with dust. A woman came in and began sweeping, but her commotion only caused the dust to fly up and clog the air. The dust clouded up the room to such a degree that she began to choke. She was forced to leave the room to find relief in fresh air. After the dust settled another woman came in to clean. This time before she sweeps she sprinkles water about so as to keep the dust from pluming up.
Christian inquired as to the meaning of the vision. His guide explained that the first person who swept the room was a person who tries to clean up their life. He can sweep and sweep but he can do nothing of his own power. The law will only stir up sin and his efforts will be fruitless.
It is only when the waters of the gospel come in and the Savior cleans the heart can the sin be put away aright.
My friends, the sweet waters of the gospel are here for you today. Your sins can be vanquished and subdued only the saving power of Jesus Christ. And he calls for you to look to him today, to be your Savior. Go to him and ask him to extradite you from the sins that beset you. The victory is not in your hands. The battle can only be won through Him. Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ.
"A wise son hears his father's instruction, but a scoffer does not listen to rebuke."
Proverbs 13:1 (ESV)
A nobleman was once banished from the kingdom in which he lived. The day before he departed he committed to the care of his servant a casket of very precious jewels. Years went by. Over time the servant became ill. As his health was failing he determined that he needed to find a place of security for the precious stones. He went out to an oak tree on the property and cut a hole in it. Beneath the bark he hid the treasure that had been committed to his care. Years later, the nobleman returned. The steward was gone by then, but the nobleman knew where his gems had been stored. By this time the young tree had grown into a mighty oak. But nevertheless it hade kept what had been deposited within its trunk. The nobleman had the tree cut down, and there within the heart of the oak the jewels were found. All had been kept well, not a single one was missing or broken. They flashed in the light with the same brightness as they did in former days.
Is this not a great picture of how it shall be when our Lord comes again? Every precious gem of truth that has been deposited within our hearts will be found by our Lord. Like that nobleman he will delight to find his treasure (his truth) embedded in our hearts and shining brightly.
Young people, the word of God is of great value. It is the most precious thing that you can obtain in life. Even the book of Proverbs makes this plain. In this book the Lord tells us that wisdom is of greater value than rubies, knowledge is of greater worth than silver and gold. And since it is of such great value, we should prize it above every commodity in this world. We should make every effort to gain this treasure.
You will have many goals in life, all of which may be quite virtuous. If a man makes it his aim to be married and have many children, that is a wonderful goal in life. Success in your business and expertise in your trade are a grand objectives. These are things that God approves of and delights in. But your highest aim ought to be the acquisition of wisdom. This is the pearl of great price. For when you store up truth, you are building a wealth that can never be stolen or spoiled.
And as we come to this passage of scripture, we find that truth to be taught. In this proverb we find that God wants us to have a love for those precious gems. He wants us to learn to love instruction. He wishes us to have a spirit that is willing to receive instruction. In other words, we see here the importance of having a teachable spirit.
In this proverb God contrasts two men. One possesses a teachable spirit the other does not. We might say that on the one hand we have a child of God, whose heart beats for knowledge and understanding. And on the other hand we have one who stubbornly refuses to be instructed. We can call him a child of Satan, for in is pride he mimics the devil. So young people, let us consider well these two figures and see how God values a teachable spirit.
I. A child of God is attentive instruction
Now the first figure put before us is a child of God. We know he is a child of God because he is attentive to instruction. It says, “A wise son hears his father’s instruction.”
This is obviously the one God calls you to emulate. You can easily see why, can’t you? He is not just to be considered a son of some earthly father. He is a child of God too. That’s because he willingly listens to his father to gain the truth God wants him to have.
Now I need to clarify some things here with regard to the kind of instruction we re to embrace. First of all we need to keep in mind that the passage is talking about a godly father who is teaching what is right.
This may be obvious, but I think I better at least mention it. We have to understand that not all fathers are good, and not all fathers give good instruction. Some fathers in this world are wicked. They don’t give godly instruction. And if you have that kind of father you are not expected to listen to anything that he says.
This passage is assuming that your father is a godly man who is teaching you what is in accord with God’s word. If you have a father who is not godly, or not teaching what is godly, then you are not obligated to obey that. As a matter of fact, you are obligated to reject it. You need to remember that it is more important to obey your Heavenly Father rather than any earthly father.
That’s part of what the Bible means when it says, “children, obey your parents in the Lord.” You are to honor your parents and obey them, but you do it “in the Lord.” Or when what they teach is in accord with the Bible.
So as you think about the instruction you should embrace, remember that this passage is assuming you have a godly parent who is teaching you what is right.
But there is another thing that I need to clarify. You not only need to embrace the teaching when it is right. You need to embrace the teaching when it is hard.
When you read this you almost think, “Well, duh.” Of course you are supposed to listen to you father when he instructs you. But we have to understand what this means by “instruction.” The word for instruction actually has to do with correction. It has to do with discipline. It has the idea of being rebuked and perhaps even punished for having done something wrong.
You see how this is a little harder nut to swallow? Nobody likes being corrected, do they? Let me see a show of hands on who likes being punished. Nobody likes that. Nobody likes admitting that they are wrong. But the Bible tells us that if we are wise, we will learn to embrace it even when it is hard for us to take.
Your dad can be hard on you sometimes too, can’t he? He can get on you about your schoolwork. He can get on you about your chores. He can say, “Hey, I don’t like the way you’ve been treating your mother lately.” You might be fed up and say, “What do you mean? I always do what mom says!” Then he’ll say, “Well, when she tells you to do something she usually has to tell you 3-4 times before you do it. And when you do finally acknowledge her you act disgusted (e.g. sigh, roll eyes and say “All right” with a defeated tone.
Now you can think, “He’s just being picky.” And you are right. He is being picky. But he’s right, and you know he’s right. You haven’t been honoring your mother. And, even though you don’t want to, you need to accept the fact that he is right. And you need show that you accept it by fixing it as fast as you can.
It might be hard at times to honor your dad, especially when it comes to him correcting you—and correcting you all the time! But no matter how often he corrects you—no matter how hard he comes down on you—if you are going to be a child of God you need to listen to him and heed his words.
And young people, if you need any encouragement to do this, you can just look at Jesus. The book of Hebrews tells us that Jesus came into this painful world and “learned obedience” by his sufferings. Now we know that Jesus was never disobedient, so he didn’t have to be corrected. But he did accept whatever came his way, even though it might not have been all that welcome to him. His ears were always attentive to what his Heavenly Father was teaching him at every moment and he accepted the Father’s discipline by even going to the cross.
Every child of God will replicate the the Son of God in this regard. Jesus had a teachable spirit. If you are going to be God’s child you must have one too. You must heed your father’s instruction, even when it is hard to take.
Well, if the child of God is one who has a teachable spirit and is attentive to instruction. You would expect that the child of Satan will be the opposite won’t he? And that is exactly what we see in the second half of this proverb.
II. A child of Satan is deaf to correction
The second half of the proverb says, “A scoffer does not listen to rebuke.” Here you have one who is deaf when it comes to correction. He is so puffed up with pride that he can’t be wrong. He will not admit that he is mistaken. When someone comes to him and corrects him, he treats it with scorn. Even though they love him and want the best for him, there is no way he is going to listen. He just blows it off. Or worse, he laughs at them. (That’s what a scorner is—he hates the truth so much that he mocks it or ridicules it).
So you see how satanic this guy is. He is completely deaf to the Lord. He wants nothing to do with God’s word or God’s way—just like Satan himself.
Now there are a few things I want you to glean from this second half.
A. Note how general it is
You’ll notice that in the second half of this proverb no teacher is mention. It doesn’t say that anything about a father. The father of the scorner is not even in the picture here. This line is very general as to who the scorner is not listening to. It is very open-ended.
The point that is made is this: If you are not going to listen to your father’s instruction, you won’t listen to anybody. You will have a complete disregard for all authority. If you blow off your dad, of all people—the most important teacher you have in your life—you can grow up to be a complete menace to society because you won’t listen to anybody.
Derek Kidner in his commentary on this verse says, “If you cannot stand home truths from your own father you are well on the way to becoming insufferable.” Nobody will want to be around you because you’ll be like an uncontrollable fire. You’ll be willing to burn anyone.
As you note how general/open-ended it is, note also how picky it is.
B. Note how “picky” it is
I mentioned a minute ago how your dad can be rather picky. Why is it that he is so picky all the time? Why is he picky about my friends? Why is my mother so picky about me placing the decimal points in my home work? You might say, “What’s the big deal, here?
You know when your mom or dad corrects you about something small they are doing that because they know that if you don’t deal with the little things then that will just snowball.
Have you ever heard of the snowball effect? The snowball effect is when you stand on the top of a hill and make a snowball—just a normal sized snowball. Then you take that snowball and put it on the ground and give it a little push. As it starts to roll down the hill it collects more and more snow and gets bigger and bigger as it goes until it has become a gargantuan snowball that can cause a lot of havoc if it crashes into something.
That’s the way sin acts. Little sins can snowball and become big sins. If you blow off your dad or your mom in the little things, then you won’t feel bad blowing him off on bigger things.
I see an example of this each week at my daughter’s soccer practice. I begin each practice by having the girls jog around the field. And when I say “around the field,” I mean around the field. I tell them stay outside the white lines and don’t cut any corners. But almost every week I have some girls cheat by cutting the corners. So I have to tell them to do it again. So they go out and do the exact same thing—they run the exact same pattern and cut the corners. I suppose they think that if you add the two times around the field together they make more than enough. So I have to stop them, get real serious and say, “You are not doing this right.”
What’s the point? The point is obedience. They know that if they can get away with cutting a few corners at the beginning of practice, they can get away with a lot more in the next hour and the next few weeks. If they don’t listen to me in this little thing of running all the way around the field, then they will cut corners in a lot of other things and make life really miserable for all of us.
Let’s talk about decimal points. In your schoolwork, what is smaller than a decimal point? Probably nothing. You might consider it to be the most insignificant thing. And you might have worked hard on your math problems, but your mom looks at it and says, “It’s wrong.” You say, “What? What do you mean it is wrong?” Your mom says, “It is wrong because you forgot your decimal point.”
You will want to complain, “It’s just a decimal point.” But what really is the problem is that you were sloppy with your work. That’s a form of laziness. And your mom might make a big deal out of a little decimal point because it is the principle of diligence. If you are willing to be sloppy with your schoolwork, what would happen if you started working at a bank? If she lets this “small” thing go now, it could snowball later in life.
I taught a Bible class for some recovering alcoholics once. And in talking with those guys I came to see that none of them woke up one day and said, “I’m going to be an alcoholic.” It was a gradual process. It started with something small, like staying out past their curfew. Then they began hanging out with the wrong crowd. They maybe went to a party and someone offered them a drink. At first they said, “No, thanks.” But then their friends pressed them. So they said, “Why not just a couple of sips. That won’t hurt anything and that will get these guys off my back.” These were just what you might call “little sins.” A disrespect for their parent’s curfew. A few friends who you liked to hang out with—so they have a rougher side to them. Not a big deal right?
Well those “small sins” developed over time. These guys who sat there with their Bibles open before me had lived in misery for a long time because their little sins became huge shackles in their lives.
So don’t gripe that your parents are picky. You should be thankful that they are picky. If you don’t have that kind of teachable spirit—if you are going to have that kind of arrogance, then you’ve already started down that leads to death.
Remember that Satan was proud. He was the highest of the angels. But then he thought he could go one up on God. He didn’t want to honor God anymore. He didn’t want to submit anymore. So what happened? He rebelled and he was thrown down. And because he wasn’t willing to submit, someday he will be thrown into the lake of fire. And all his children who have hated instruction will go with him.
Conclusion:
One of the most elegant jewels in the world is a diamond. They are simply beautiful to behold. After I gave my wife her engagement ring, she used to sit there and just look at it sparkle in the light. It wasn’t all that big, but it was still quite nice to look at.
But you know how you get a diamond? A diamond is actually formed from a lump of coal—a black, ugly piece of coal. But when you apply a significant amount of pressure to that ugly piece of coal it converts into a diamond. But then, the diamond isn’t yet ready to be set in a piece of jewelry. It then has to be taken to a professional who can cut the diamond. You see, diamonds don’t come straight from the ground to your ring. When they are mined from the earth they are still jagged in form. They need to be chipped into shape before they are set before the customer.
That’s the way it is for a child of God too. You must be like that diamond. When you get pressure from your dad, you must understand that he is seeking to make you better. When your mom starts in on you, you need to remember that she is simply trying to chisel those jagged edges off of you. They want you to be ready to be presented to Christ as one of his precious children.
“Whoever walks with the wise becomes wise, but the companion of fools will suffer harm.”
Proverbs 13:20 As we renew our series in the book of Proverbs it is good to remind ourselves of the familial setting of this book. This is a book from a father to a son. And we should expect that there be “Fatherly advice” in this book.
It is important for us to note that because it reminds us that this is the primary book we are to use when training up our children. It is their textbook. It is the curriculum of God’s choice that we as parents are to be using.
Moreover, we ought to remember that that this book is intimately addressed to each and every one of us here today. For we are to remember that, through faith in Jesus Christ, we are children of God. And by these inspired words our Heavenly Father speaks to us.
And such is the case today. The counsel we receive here is some of the greatest fatherly advice we could ever receive. That’s because it deals with who we regard as our closest companions.
As fathers we are responsible for the nurture of our children. Part of that nurture means we must help our kids discern who their friends should be. That is exactly what the Lord does in this passage.
This proverb calls us to godly fellowship. That is to say, it tells us that we are to surround ourselves with people who are wise. And our passage gives us two reasons why we should do this. The first half of the verse says that we should surround ourselves with wise people because…
I. Wise companions will make us wiser
It says, “Whoever walks with the wise becomes wise.”
You know how you catch a cold. You hang around with people who are sick. The same is true when it comes to wisdom. If you want to be wise, hang around with people who are wise.
Now, before I talk about some specific applications, I want you to remember something very important here. This is not talking about people who get straight A’s or telling you that we are to hang around with people who we might consider “bright.” This has nothing to do with someone’s IQ or SAT score. You need to remember that a wise person is not necessarily an intelligent person. A person can know a lot of things, but that does not make him a wise person.
A wise person is a person who is a Christian. He is a person who knows God’s word and knows how to live by the word. To put it another way: A wise man can be someone who flunked out of school or never passed the 8th grade. But despite his IQ, he is a god fearing man who has devoted himself to the study and application of God’s word. Though he might not have read a lot of books, there is one book that he does know—it’s the Bible.
This is the kind of person that this passage is talking about. That is the kind of person with whom we are to “walk”. That is the kind of person we are to seek out and fellowship with on a regular basis. If our companions are wise and godly people, that’s going to rub off on us. We will become wise and godly ourselves.
Now, having clarified that, let talk about some applications we can make. I want you to take a second and ask yourself…
A. With whom do you associate regularly?
Who you are friends with right now? Are you surrounding yourself with godly people? Are the people you are hanging around with right now, are they pursuing a relationship with Christ? I don’t care about their grade point average. Do they have their hearts set upon Christ?
You need godly friends. Because when you surround yourself with godly friends you yourself will become wise. They will rub off on you. They will teach you, by their words and by their actions.
Think about the disciples. How did they become such great men of wisdom? It is because they hung out with Jesus. They were part of the greatest seminary of all time. And basically, all they did was walk with Jesus and hang out with him for three years.
Of course they sat under his teaching, but think about the “down times”—the time when class wasn’t in session. Don’t you think they still would have learned a great deal? In a sense, they were always in the school of Christ merely by hanging around with him. Christ’s everyday conduct would have taught them, perhaps more than his sermons did.
We usually don’t choose our friends with this in mind. We usually just choose to hang out with the people we like to do the same things as us. But that might not necessarily be beneficial for us. That is not the primary way we are to choose our chums. Those we most often associate with are to be critiqued on the basis of their relationship to Christ.
And as you think about those you associate on a daily basis, think too about who you associate with on a weekly basis.
B. With whom do you associate at worship?
This ought to affect your church life too, and how you worship.
I want to apologize to you. People like me, who are leaders in the church, have done a terrible thing to you. We have made you dumb. We have done a terrible thing by separating your from the older people in the church.
Those of you who may have grown up in the church probably went to Sunday school. You might even have gone to youth group. But how much time did you spend with the older and wiser people in your church? Probably not much. We have not let you walk with wise people.
Now there may very well be a place for Sunday school and Youth group. I don’t think that these things are wrong in and of themselves. As a matter of fact, they can be quite useful. That’s because young people need to develop godly relationships with kids their age. But today a lot of churches have gone the route of completely segregating their churches by age. Churches today are too divided today. Not over race, but age. (A lot of churches will even send children out during worship!)
I’m glad this church does not do that. I like that you follow the family integrated model. That’s good because there is that healthy mixture of young people with those who are older and wiser. And know htat your elders have intentionally designed your service this way because they know that if you worship with the wise, you will become wise.
But don’t just think about how this applies to those you hang with on a regular basis or how you worship. Think about what you are doing with your free time.
C. With whom do you associate during your free time?
Who do you hang around with when nobody is around? Are you walking with the characters on the Television? Or are you cultivating your spiritual life with good books? Are you reading the Bible? Are you walking with the apostles and prophets? Are you walking with Jesus?
The home is where we spend a lot of our time, but just because we are at home does not mean that we have to be alone. We can still fellowship with saints who have been blessed with wisdom. We can surround ourselves with Christian literature—devotionals, sermons, books of theology. We can pick up something written by Martin Loyd Jones or Charles Spurgeon. We can walk with these guys. We can gain their wisdom.
You know it is good to read novels. But in the long run they aren’t going to do much for you. Even if it is a “Christian novel.” To some extent it can be like TV-- bubble gum for your brain. It tastes good, but it really doesn’t do much for you. It probably won’t make you that much wiser. But if you walk with people like John Piper or RC Sproul, you are going to benefit from their wisdom.
As a matter of fact I was reading a book by RC Sproul just yesterday. On almost every page I read he was citing someone else, Jonathan Edwards or some other Christian thinker. I thought to myself, “Sproul is just borrowing from everyone else! But I look to him for wisdom!” He had walked with other saints, that’s what makes him so wise.”
Let me make a suggestion to you. Martin Llyod Jones once said that the best thing a Christian can do is read biographies. He said that we ought to saturate ourselves with books about the men that God has raised up throughout history. And biographies are great because they oftentimes read like novels. They have that interest level because of the excitement surrounding their lives. But they also detail the lives and beliefs of these men that can be examples and guidance for us.
I want to encourage you to do this. Pick up a biography of some notable saint and begin to walk with him. Sit at his feet, study his life, consider his doctrine. And as you do you will find that he will begin rub off on you.
If you are going to be wise, that’s the way to do it. It doesn’t matter if it is choosing who your friends are, where you worship, or how you spend your free time. If you want to be wise, you need to surround yourself with people who are filled with godly wisdom themselves.
Now let me just reiterate how important it is to do this. Surrounding yourselves with wise and godly people is of the utmost importance, not just because wise friends will make you wiser, but because but foolish friends will make you suffer.
II. Foolish companions will make you suffer
If you look at the second half of this verse (20) you will see this. It says, “The companion of fools will suffer harm.” If you have a different version it may say something slightly different, but it should still read pretty much the same.
But let me unravel this a bit for you. I want you to notice that last word. The word for harm comes from a word that literally means “to scream.” Doesn’t that bring a new light to the text. “The companion of fools will scream.”
I want you to think about how this applies to your everyday life.
A. Think about how this applies to your everyday life.
Do unbelievers make up your “inner circle” of friends? I want you to understand that if they do, then you will be harmed.
Think about what it says in 2 Corinthians. In chapter 6 Paul explicitly says that we are not to be yoked with unbelievers (2 Cor. 6:14). A yoke is something you put on cattle to guide them. Two cattle are strapped together with a special harness so that they can pull a plow. But if one of those cattle is dead, then which way is the plow going to be pulled? It will be pulled in the direction of the dead one.
That is how it is when you become intimately involved with someone who is spiritually dead. They don’t help your walk with the Lord. They will hinder it and pull it in the wrong direction.
I’ve known Christians who have gone of to college and started hanging out with people who weren’t Christians. Perhaps they even joined a fraternity or sorority. As a result their faith was harmed.
I never joined such a group, but I did choose to live with people who were not Christians during my college days. I look back on those days with a great amount of disdain. I had the opportunity to link up with a lot of Christian guys. I could have lived on a hall where my spiritual life would have been valued, rather than disdained. But instead I chose to spend my days with guys whose lifestyle was no wise favorable to my faith.
Now I didn’t go out drinking with them. I didn’t join in with any of their pleasures or crudeness. As a matter of fact I looked on it with a great deal of contempt. But, looking back, I wonder where I would be today if I had chosen the alternative route. They might not have made me a hellion, but they didn’t stir me on in my walk with Christ either. Though they did not harm my walk with Christ, they did not help it either. If I had chosen to make my companions Christians, I could be a lot farther ahead in my sanctification today. I might have been able to conquer some different sins a lot easier or a lot earlier. I can’t say where I’d be, but I know that I would be a lot farther along that I am right now. And I look at that now and it really irks me. Sometimes it makes me want to scream.
I don’t want to make myself out to be a saint either. There were times where I joined in their sins. I laughed at their jokes. I enjoyed it when they made fun of other people. There were all sorts of things that I got caught up in because they were my friends. And I have to say that my soul was hurt because of it—and it still hurts as I look back and reflect on it.
Now, I don’t want you to think that we jump ship and break off all contact with the unbelieving. You know me better than that. There’s no possible way to do that. We mix with the unbelieving all the time. And it is important that we do because that’s the way the gospel advances in the world.
However, I do want to warn you. I want you to make sure your closest buddies are not those who don’t share your faith. You will be harmed if you do.
But don’t just think about how this applies to your everyday life…
B. Think about how this applies to your wedding day.
If this applies to your bosom buddies, of course it is going to apply to who you marry. That’s because marriage is nothing more than the most intimate of friendships.
I have met some quite a number of ladies who I would classify as “spiritual widows” (Christian ladies with unbelieving husbands). Most of them became Christians after their marriage. But I can’t even begin to think about the pain they must experience. They have talked with me and you can just tell they hurt. I wouldn’t doubt that there have been times in their lives where they have just screamed. On the one hand they hurt because the one they cherish the most is not living in God’s grace.
But at the same time, think about how their spiritual lives suffer too. They don’t have a man who will read the scriptures with them. They don’t have a man with whom they can pour out their soul and have pray for them. I can’t imagine the loneliness they feel because they can’t share much of their life—how they are growing in Christ, what treasures they have found in the Scriptures. It’s so sad.
Young people, don’t ever let yourself suffer in such a way. As you grow up, make sure you don’t get caught warming up to a boy or a girl who is not a solid Christian. If you do, you will find that your life will be filled tears and sorrows—and perhaps even some screams. .
But don’t just think about how this applies to your everyday life and your wedding day…
C. Think about how this applies to Judgment Day
If you are a companion of fools, most likely, you are a fool yourself.
Typically, people associate with people who are of the same mind. People who join the country club join it because they have similar interests. People who join a sorority do so because they are of the same mindset as that group. People who join the church do so because they are one with Christ.
So if you like companionship of unbelieving people more than the companionship of the church, most likely you are of the same heart. And the Bible says, if your heart is set against Christ, you will suffer—you will scream.
The story goes that one spring some crows began to pull up some of the farmer’s young corn. The farmer loaded up his gun and made out to frighten them away. The farmer had a pet parrot whom he loved. But when they got out to the field the parrot left the farmer and flew over to the crows in the corn. Bang! The farmer shot and then went to inspect what came of it. He found that he had hit three crows and his parrot.
He took the parrot home and the farmer’s children asked, “What hurt him?” The farmer responded “Bad company.”
That’s how the day of judgment will be for some people. They might have grown up in the church, but they come to enjoy the company of sinners more. When Christ comes, they are severely hurt.
Conclusion:
St. Augustine is quoted as once having said, “I would rather have speeches that are true than those which contain merely nice distinctions. Just as I would rather have friends who are wise [more] than merely those who are handsome.”
Augustine knew what he was talking about. He once had some close chums who were not wise. The only way they helped him was to sin. As a result he ended up suffering a lot of pain. Wise friends—wise companions—are to be much more preferred.
The soul of the sluggard craves and gets nothing, while the soul of the diligent is richly supplied.
Proverbs 13:4 (ESV) When I was in school and just beginning to learn my math facts, I often got mixed up. When I had a sheet that was all addition or all subtraction, I was fine. But when the assignment called for a mixture of the two, I frequently got problems incorrect. That’s because I would sometimes add when I was supposed to subtract. Or subtract when I was supposed to add. In the midst of my work I would forget what the problem called for. And as a result, when the paper was graded I would have a lot of red marks on it.
I mention this because today’s proverb is a lot like one of those math problems. It presents us with two equations. The theme of the Proverb has to do with our desires. And it says that we have to be careful to add, and not subtract, diligence because the consequences are radically different.
It is a lot like following a recipe. In college I had a bread maker. I would put the ingredients in before I went to dinner in the evening. Then, about 8:00 that night—when I was getting hungry again, it would be ready. But there were times that I would be goofing around with my friends while making the bread. And I would forget to put in one or two of the ingredients. Now if you don’t add salt to the bread, it comes out tasting funny. But if you do, then the bread becomes quite a delicious treat (and you become the admiration of the rest of the dorm!)
But it was all dependent upon that one ingredient. The determiner was whether I added it or subtracted it.
The same is true for diligence. When it comes to the recipe for life God says that we must add diligence to our desires. Otherwise the consequences can be pretty sour.
As a matter of fact, that’s how our proverb starts out. It tells us that the one who does not add diligence to desire is miserable tormented. In other words, he ends up creating his own little hell.
I. One who does not combine diligence with desire is miserably tormented
The first part of our proverb says, “The soul of the sluggard craves, but gets nothing.” We are presented with the sluggard, or the lazy man. This the man who does not add diligence to his desires. So it is as Charles Bridges says, “He desires the gain of diligence without the diligence.” He’s a man with many longings, but no labor.
So what happens? Well, obviously he ends up getting nothing. The old saying is true, “You reap what you so.” But I want you to understand that there is more here than that. What happens is that he creates his own little hell. His desire becomes God’s curse because he isn’t following God’s call to work.
Think about it this way: What does the lazy man have? Well you say he does not have anything! But that’s not true. He does not have the object of his desire, but he does still have the desire, doesn’t he?
His desire is not satisfied. As a result it continues to burn in his soul. As a result of his inaction the yearning continues to grow, and it begins to pulsate within him. The passion of the desire continues to increase so that it the lazy man gets more and more agitated every passing idle moment. So his craving starts to throb like a migraine headache because the thirst and yearning is not quenched.
You could say that he becomes so consumed with this desire that he ends up becoming consumed by his desire. All this, of course, could have been avoided had he just did whatever it was that was needed to fill his desire.
I like what Matthew Henry says on this passage. He says, “The desire of the sluggard ought to be his excitement[1], but is instead his torment. That which ought to make him busy, makes him always uneasy, and it is a greater toil to him than labor would be.”
Why don’t I give a little example? Perhaps that will help to clarify things. Let’s say that you want an apple. You wake up one morning and you think, “Boy, I really have a hankering for a nice juicy apple.” Well, what should you do? The first thing you should do is go to work. That way you can make enough money to afford the apple. Then, after you get paid, you take your hard earned money and go get yourself your apple.
But that’s not what a lazy person does, does he? He doesn’t want to work. He doesn’t want to get out of bed and do what it takes to get that apple. So when he wakes up he says, “Mmmm. I want an apple.” All morning long as he lays on his bed and he just dreams about an apple. He’s thinking about how crisp it is. As he imagines taking that first bite the juices start flowing in his mouth and he can almost taste it.
But after a while he starts getting annoyed. He really wants this apple. And everything he does starts to irritate him because he so much wants this apple. He turns on the TV to PBS and they are doing a special on apple orchards. He goes outside to go for a walk and (what do you know!) there are some people walking down his street eating apples. He tries to put it out of his mind and he starts off around the block. He doesn’t get but around the corner and there in the window at the grocery story is a huge sign that says, “Fall Sale: 50% off all apples.” Now he is really irked because he could have an apple at half the price, but he doesn’t have the money to get it. So he storms off towards home, and when he gets home he sits and sulks because he wants an apple but can’t get it.
You see how absurd this is? It is a silly example, but it is a biblical one. What does Paul say in the book of 1st Thessalonians? He says, “If you don’t work, you won’t eat.”
You can have the desire to eat, and that is fine and good. But if you don’t do what it takes to get your food—if you don’t follow the means that God has laid out for satisfying your hunger—then all you will be left with the hunger and craving. And that hunger will get worse and worse. You will become more and more miserable the longer you poke around. So you end up creating your own little, self inflicted hell.
That’s the way God has ordained it. He has called us to diligence. The way we obtain what we want is through work. If we don’t follow his path, then we become the victims of our own desires.
You can understand how this same principle can translate into other areas, can’t you? How many people do you know who want to be wealthy, but don’t want to do what it takes to make money? They don’t want to get the education. They don’t want to go out and get a job. They don’t want to be frugal. They don’t want to waste all that precious time and energy on all that work.
But boy to they want to be rich. They want the clothes. They want the car. They want the house, flat screen TV and I-pod. All the while their craving burns. There is no contentment in their lives. They become bitter toward others. They become envious of those who are rich. They hate others for having, simply for the fact that they have it. Meanwhile the bills keep mounting up (which of course makes them want more money).
It is just a vicious cycle. Their laziness becomes the noose of misery that keeps tightening.
What about the desire to be wise? That’s a good desire, isn’t it? What do you have to do to be wise? You have to study the Word of God, don’t you? But a lazy man won’t do that. He won’t do what it takes. That would mean he may have to wake up a little earlier. It means memorizing and meditating. It means trying to figure out what those Westminster divines meant with that funny language and big words. But that’s way too much effort!
But O, how he wants to be wise! He dreams of being a Daniel or a Joseph. But he’s not willing to do the work.
What about the man who has the desire to go to heaven? That’s a great desire! But woe to the man who will not submit himself to the preaching of God’s word. His desire will haunt him for all eternity! Because he was too lazy to repent of his sins and turn to Christ he’ll find himself sitting right there in hell. And he’ll cry out in anguish, “Why was I so lazy? Why didn’t I seek the Lord while he could have been found? Why didn’t I apply myself to prayer and receive the blessing of eternal life when it was offered to me?” His desire to be in heaven will be floating around in his mind all the time. And that will be just as hellish to him as the fires themselves.
We have to say that this kind of person, this sluggard, is a complete fool. He had the desire. And, at least initially, that desire was a good thing. But woe to the man who does not add diligence to his desire! His desire will become a disease. It will be like a leprosy that causes his soul to rot. It could have easily blossomed into a world of happiness. But instead those desires become a curse to him—a thorn that makes him more and more miserable.
So if you don’t add diligence to your desire, you see how bad it can be. It is not a good thing. But what if you add diligence to your desire? How will things turn out then? Well our proverb says that instead of miserably tormented, you will be richly rewarded.
II. One who combines diligence with desire is richly rewarded
It says, “The soul of the diligent man is richly supplied.” I like the old King James Version on this one. It says, ‘The soul of the diligent shall be made fat.”
We don’t think of fatness as a good thing. But in the Bible fatness is a great thing. It is richness. It is wealth or fullness. When you are made fat are blessed and richly rewarded. And the way gain that fatness is by diligence.
We have the saying, “No pain, no gain.” That’s exactly what is being communicated here. If you are going to gain in life, there has to be a little pain. You have to exert a little effort. You have to do what it takes to gain what you desire.
We typically think that if you work hard then you will loose weight, right? Well what do you gain when you work out? You gain health. You become skinny in body, but you are fat with health. You have this abundance of health that you wouldn’t have if you didn’t have the diligence to take care of yourself.
This is the way God has ordered it. The pathway to the good kind of fatness is by way of diligence in our work.
You young people, do you want a fat wallet? Well you have to do what it takes to get it then. You can’t just pray, “God make me rich.” God is not like a slot machine where you put in your prayer and all this cash comes falling down out of the sky. No. You have to work.
Making a lot of money is a fine desire. God doesn’t want you to be impoverished. He wants you to be economically successful. The Bible even says that the righteous man will prosper, and part of that prosperity is economic prosperity.
But you shouldn’t pray, “God make me rich.” You should pray, “God, give me a job.” Or “God, help me to use the gifts you have given me in the way that pleases you God.” That’s the road to fat cash. And when you get that job, you don’t laze around. You don’t spend your time goofing around playing facebook. You work at it with diligence.
Let me ask you older folks: Do you want a fat church? Of course we do. We want our church to gain some weight—we want these chairs to fill up. But how do we get that? What does it take to fill a church?
It takes diligence. Obviously I as a minister need to be diligent in my job. Paul told Timothy, “Do the work of an evangelist. Preach the Word.” In other words, the guy who stands here has to prepare his message, practice it and hone his presentation. But don’t think that lets you off the hook. You need to be diligently doing your part! How do I get those opportunities to be an evangelist? How do I get those opportunities to preach the word? How does the word become effectual in people’s lives? It comes by God opening those doors. So if we are going to be a fat church we need to be diligent in prayer. We need to be crying out to God for him to send us those poor souls who need to be converted. We need to be praying that God would open doors for ministry beyond these walls.
As you can see, people aren’t flocking to come here. It is the one place nobody wants to be. It is about as counter cultural as you can get. You have to sit still for long periods of time. We sing songs from clear back in the 5th century. We believe that women have to be submissive to their husbands and men must lead his family. I mean, what sort of crazy goon is going come here and worship with us? I know who will! People like us! Only people who have their hearts changed, and have come to fear the Lord.
Someone once asked Charles Spurgeon why his church was so successful—why was it that so many people flocked to his church each week. You might say, “Well duh! Spurgeon was a great preacher!” But Spurgeon didn’t attribute his success to himself. He responded to the man by waving his hand and saying, “Follow me.” He led him down to the room right below the sanctuary. There in the belly of the church there were hundreds of his congregation members with their heads bowed. They were praying for the service. They were praying for the ministry of the word. They were asking the Lord to bless the means that he had ordained for the conversion of sinners and the building up of the saints.
That’s how a church grows. That’s how a church is made fat. It usually doesn’t happen overnight. But when God’s people are diligent in prayer, churches start putting on some pounds!
You remember how the widow got her justice? She came to the judge again and again. She was diligent. She might have been annoying! But she was diligent in being annoying! So she got what she wanted from the cruel judge.
How much more will our Heavenly Father, who loves us, give us what we ask?
How about relationships? Everyone wants good relationships, don’t they? Especially in the church. But relationships take diligence. That’s because relationships can be broken and you want to give up on them. But God doesn’t want that. He wants us to persevere in our relationships. He wants broken relationships to be mended. And that can only be done through diligently abiding by the means he has set out.
Think about Matthew 18. It can seem like an arduous thing, can’t it? First, you see your brother in sin. So what do you have to do? You have to confront him. If that doesn’t work, you have to do it again. If that doesn’t work, you have to do it again. This time you grab a friend who can come along with you. If that doesn’t work, the job isn’t done. Now it is time to hand it over to the church and let them work on it.
But what usually happens? People are lazy. They switch churches to avoid those people. Or they cut off any real interaction. They don’t want to follow the commands of God. They don’t have that kind of diligence. So their friendships end up being few and far between. Many of them end u; being shallow. Most of all their church is as gaunt as an Ethiopian orphan.
That’s not what God calls us to do though. God wants fat relationships. And to have that you’ll have to be diligent in reconciling with your brothers. It’s going to take a lot of work. Reconciliation takes up a lot of time and energy. But No pain, no gain. That’s the way the Lord works. That’s the way relationships are restored. If you desire to have fat friendships and a healthy church, that’s the way you do it. You all have the desire for these things, but the desire needs to be met with diligence. And when the two become one, the desire shall be satisfied.
And, my friends, don’t think that this is something far from God himself. Our being reconciled to God wasn’t something that came easily for the Lord. He desired it from all eternity. But it wouldn’t come easy for him. His desire was satisfied only through the diligence of his Son, Jesus Christ. Jesus got off his throne and came into this world. He spent himself in prayer in long nights. His desire for our salvation would not be satisfied until every commandment was fulfilled. He would not stop until every nail had been hammered into his flesh. He determined to do all his redemptive work and would not stop until he could say, “It is finished.” His hunger for our souls could not be satisfied without his diligence. And because he was diligent, we know that his kingdom shall be fat! You and I may have opportunity to participate in that kingdom because of what Christ has done.
Conclusion:
God’s recipe for success is a simple equation: Desire + diligence. When you put those to things together, you will see that your longings will be satisfied. If you are careful to add, rather than subtract, then God will grant you the object of your desire. Because God has ordained work as the pathway to fatness.
[1] An old way of saying stimulation. He should have been stimulated to work.
"A good man leaves an inheritance to his children's children, but the sinner's wealth is laid up for the righteous."
Proverbs 13:22
Some of you might remember a story that was reported in the news a few years back. You might have heard about the millionaire woman who died. When her children gathered for the reading of her will, they most likely were anxiously awaiting to see how the funds would be distributed among them. To their chagrin, they found that the woman bequeathed all her money to her dog.
We will all agree that that’s the most screwed up thing that we’ve probably ever heard of. (You are all probably wondering how the dog spent the money too.) But it is simply symptomatic of the deeper problem facing our culture today.
We are living in a time where we are seeing the disintegration of the family. Moreover, we live in a culture that hates children. It hates having children and it hates raising children. And, like that millionaire woman, it could care less about the children after they are gone.
This is why it is important to address the issue spoken of in this proverb. This morning we are going to be thinking about leaving an inheritance. You might think that this is somewhat of a boring subject. Or, if you are still young, it is something you might think is way too far in the future to even begin to think about. But as I studied this week, I found that it is a subject that Christians really need to examine. That’s because it deals with one of the most fundamental issues that we deal with: our families—particularly it deals with the next generation of families.
We’ve all heard the command, “Honor your father and your mother.” But we must also remember that the flip side of the command is that father’s and mothers need to honor their children and their grandchildren.
To an extent we do that. We talk a lot about raising our children and how we are to value them when they are young. But our discussions should not be limited to the first 18-20 years of their lives. Our vision for honoring our children needs to extend throughout our lives. Or, more accurately, it needs to extend throughout their lives. God says here that a good man—a righteous man, a godly man, is going to leave an inheritance to his children’s children.
Here is a man who has a vision not just for himself, but for his whole family. He’s not just planning out his own life. He is planning out the continuing effects of his life throughout the succeeding generations of his family after he is gone. And the way he impacts them is by leaving an inheritance.
That is what we are called to do. We are called to look to the future. We are to look to how we can begin to create a dynasty in the following generations. And the main way we do that is by the inheritance we leave our children and grandchildren.
As we consider this whole issue of leaving an inheritance, perhaps we should begin by checking our priorities.
I. Priorities in leaving an inheritance
In other words, when it comes to this inheritance that we are to leave, we should prioritize what are our main concerns. Some things should take priority when we are plotting the legacy we will leave. And certainly our chief concern ought to be, what I call, the faith of our fathers.
A. Faith of our fathers
Our main concern ought not to be the assets we bequeath to our children. Our main concern ought not to be the material things our children will inherit. It needs to be that they will receive an inheritance kept in heaven, that will never spoil or fade.
In other words, we should want our children receive a solid training in the faith. That will be their greatest inheritance. If they inherit our faith, but never receive a penny from us, they will have received something far more valuable. They will have inherited a great salvation, and a place in glory.
We would be doing a great injustice to our children if we neglected this. We could leave them tens of thousands of dollars, lots of land, and a great deal of material goods. But if we but never passed on anything of eternal worth, it all would be meaningless.
We have a lot of parents out there who are working themselves silly to make a lot of money. They even do it in the name of their kids. But it would be more worth while if we had parents who worked less, made less money, but invested themselves in their children and their children’s spiritual welfare. Because that is what is of chief importance when it comes to leaving an inheritance. A dynasty of dollars fails to compare to a dynasty of godliness.
You will remember that is how George Mueller died. He died with just a few hundred dollars on hand. But he had bequeathed to his family, and more than 10,000 orphaned children, a happy home in heaven.
And that should be our aim. Our highest priority ought to be the faith of our fathers. And right behind that is the priority of our children’s temporal welfare.
B. Welfare of our children
In saying all this, I don’t want us to neglect our children’s earthly wellbeing. The good man in this proverb certainly does not separate the spiritual inheritance from the physical inheritance. His love is a love that encompasses not just their eternal welfare but their physical wellbeing too. He wants them not just to be in heaven. But he wants them to be successful in this world too. He wants them to prosper while they live even more than he did.
You’ve all heard how your grandfather had to walk up the hill, both ways in the snow without a lunch pail to get to school. And your grand-father worked hard in his life so that your father could have a lunch pail when he went to school. And your father worked hard so that you didn’t have to walk up the hill both ways.
And that should be our aim too. We should want our children to have it better than we did. We should want them to have opportunities that we did not have. We want them to enjoy more of the world’s comforts. We want them to be able to advance in life, beyond where we did.
And don’t think this is just so they can have a life of ease and be able to go on huge spending sprees. Not at all. We want them to be able to be more liberal with their money than we were able to be too. Our giving to them then allows them to be able to be more generous towards the needy.
And you see in that how we are not just focused on our children’s welfare, but we are focused on the others’ welfare too! Ultimately this is the welfare of the church!
When we leave an inheritance we focus not just on the faith of our fathers and the welfare of our children. We also focus on the kingdom of our God.
C. Kingdom of our God
One of our highest priorities in leaving an inheritance is so that we can further the glory of God. When we pass on that spiritual inheritance to our children, combined with the wealth that we have accumulated, we have a chance to strengthen and further the ministry of the gospel
Just think how much wealth could be accumulated in just a few generations? Just think how our children and our grandchildren, could impact the world for Christ! Just think of the missionaries that could be supported. Think of the churches that could be built. Think of the souls that could be affected!
I heard this week that the Arabs over in places like Abudabi are now inviting missionaries to come over and teach the people there the Bible. Can you believe that? Muslim people are inviting Christians to come and teach them about the Lord! I don’t know if that is true or not, but let’s assume for a second that it was. Think about the opportunity! But the thing is, Abudabi is not a cheap place to live. The cost of living is exorbitant. Most missionaries couldn’t afford to live there, unless they were well backed.
But if Christians took seriously the call of God to lay up and inheritance to their children’s children, the call of God could easily be met. And one of the hardest places in the world to reach with the gospel, could begin to be infiltrated!
As Christians, we have three priorities: our faith, our family, our Lord’s kingdom. These are the things that matter most to us. These are the things that are to set the stage for how we live and how we die. And if we keep them as our main priorities will help us to leave a good heritage when it comes time for us to pass away.
But when it comes to leaving an inheritance to our children’s children, we need to remember that there are obstacles out there. There are some barriers that we must overcome if we are going fulfill this calling. I entitle this next point the enemies to leaving an inheritance because these are things that can hinder or obstruct the dynasty we should be seeking to build.
II. Enemies to leaving an inheritance
And I want to address them so that you are aware of them. The first of these enemies is the hedonism that pervades our culture.
A. Hedonism: “Die Broke”
Someone who is a hedonist is someone who has made the pursuit of pleasure his main goal in life. And this is rampant in our culture, and you can see it in a variety of ways.
You’ve all probably seen the old man driving down the street in a sporty convertible with a bumper sticker that says, “I’m spending my child’s inheritance.” That’s the idea that I’m talking about.
That is not just a silly bumper sticker either. That is a moto that many live by. They don’t have a concern for their children. They don’t have a concern for the future—mainly because they don’t believe they have a future. So many people make it their goal in life to die broke. The cry of our day is, “Eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.”
And the world is oriented towards this philosophy. We even have financial consultants who will help you attain this goal. You can go and consult a broker who will organize your profile so that you can retire early and spend the latter days of your life hitting cruise liners and traveling the world. They will actually help you die broke.
I don’t know if you are familiar with this or not, but there is a new thing out there called reverse mortgages. People who have retired can now have banks buy back their houses through regular installments. It is just like a mortgage payment, but instead of you paying the bank, the bank pays you. You live in the house until the last payment is made. (And hopefully you die before you have to move out!).
But do you see how hedonistic that is? They are thinking of no one but themselves and their own selfish desires. This pleasure driven, self seeking mentality pervades our culture and the business world now even has accommodated itself to this wicked worldview.
I understand that you might not be looking into a reverse mortgage, or planning to retire early. But beware of the tendency to splurge. Beware of the temptation to use up your money by wastefulness or by living it up. This is a terrible way to rob your children of the honor that you ought to be bestowing upon them when you are gone.
I could spend a lot of time on this, but for the sake of time I have to move on. Let it be enough to say right now that you need to be aware of how you use your money now: One of the enemies to our inheritance leaving is the hedonism that pervades our culture.
Another adversary that we should recognize is the socialism that pervades our government.
B. Socialism: The Death Tax
By this I refer to what is commonly called the death tax. Our government is a continually growing monster. With all the socialized programs and new agencies that it is producing it has become a behemoth of a thing. And in order to run all those programs it has to find ways to fund them. And one of the ways it does is by sucking funds from it’s citizens who die. It is not enough for them to tax us at every turn when we are alive, but they have to get us after we are gone too!
And it is a double dip for them! They tax the income we receive and everything we purchase. But then, after we’ve done our best to accumulate a substantive amount of wealth and assets, they dip into it again after we have passed on!
And they are not shy about how much they take. If when you die your estate adds up to $500,000, the government will take 1/3rd of that in federal taxes alone. That is not even including what the state may take on top of that!
What is so terrible about the death tax though is that it diminishes the wealth that rightfully belongs to one’s family. It obscures the ability of a family to progress and grow in society. And it does so all in the name of giving it to people who have absolutely no relation or right to the money.
There are ways to avoid the death tax to some degree. You cannot avoid it completely, but there are some ways to do that. One of which is giving your inheritance to your children before you die, rather than waiting until after you pass. This helps alleviate it to some degree.
But let it be enough for you to know now that a death tax does exist and it is evil. And, if you are serious about leaving an inheritance to your decendancts, you may want to consult a professional who can help you get around it the best you can. The death tax is an enemy to our families and a foe to the generations that follow us.
So we have hedonism in our culture and socialism in our government. I believe there is one more enemy that we should address. That is the dispensationalism that is prevalent in our churches.
C. Dispensationalism: Rapture Theory
Many Christians today hold a view of the end times that is detrimental to the following generations. And this belief is incredibly popular. As a matter of fact, there was a series of 12 best selling books that was based on the belief. What I am talking about is the belief of the secret rapture. It is the belief that in the end times all the Christians living on earth will be whisked away by Jesus. While we are all in heaven, things on earth are all going to go to hell in a handbasket.
This belief gets this verse all turned on its head. Many people who take this view that we are all going to be suddenly taken up into heaven then think that you have to spend what you have while you have it. If you lay it up for the next generation, then it might fall into the hands of some wicked person. If you and your family are gone, then your bank account is going to be inherited by some wicked person who is going to spend it on his own delights. So the conclusion is: You should use up everything while you are still here.
I cannot go into a full refutation of this doctrine. That is not the purpose of this message. I just want you to be aware that the Bible does not teach a secret rapture. Everywhere the end times are talked about (if you look at it in context) you see that when Christ comes again it will be a very public event. It will be a very decisive event at the end of history. And we have no reason to be spending our children’s inheritance.
This belief system, if taken to its conclusion—as many people in our day have—is an enemy to the command to honor our children. It is just as detrimental as the hedonism or socialism that is around us in the world. Perhaps though it is more damaging as it is something that lurks in the church under the mask of Biblical Christianity.
God does call us to be looking for Christ’s return. We are to be living in light of his return. But that means we are to be obeying the command to honor our children and grandchildren. We are to be building our families and his kingdom by the inheritance that we leave them.
You might be thinking, “Well, this is quite a job!” And you might be inclined to get a little stressed about it. Well, be at ease. God does help us with this job.
III. Help with leaving an inheritance
The second half of our proverb does mention the assistance God gives us in building our wealth. It says, “the sinner's wealth is laid up for the righteous.” In other words, God’s judgment upon the sinner not only consists in stripping the sinner of all that he has, but he take that wealth and gives it to his people.
I like the way this is phrased too. The wealth is “laid up” for the righteous. In other words, the unbeliever’s pocketbook is like a bank account for godly people. You know how you put your money in the bank. You lay it up for the future. But the Lord has the ungodly person’s money “laid up” for the righteous. His fortunes are going to be our fortunes.
You might even here a hint of the kind of justice the sinner experiences. Perhaps the sinner here is one who has been diligently saving his money all his life. He has been laying it up. But before he can enjoy it, he dies. All his wealth then is distributed to the righteous.
You can kind of hear the story Jesus told about the man who had a great increase in his crops. He decided that he would build bigger barns to store it up in and then live the rest of his life in ease. He was just going to ignore God’s call to work and begin to be lazy and live it up.
But that night God came to him and said, “This night your life will be demanded of you.” So all his wealth that he had accumulated was left, and we are left to wonder who got it.
Certainly this serves as a warning to those who have not turned to God. If you are one who is a sinner and is not living by faith in Jesus Christ nad his word, then you should beware of the consequences.
But this is a word to those of us who are Christians—those of us who have heeded the call to follow Christ. God will assist us in life. He will reward our righteousness and even reward it in monetary ways. And that which we accumulate from God, can then be taken and invested back to God and his kingdom.
As Jesus says elsewhere—in the parable of the talents, “to him who has, more will be given.”
Conclusion:
I would assume that most of us have not thought much about the inheritance that we are going to leave. But I hope that this message does begin to change that. I hope that you see that God does call us to honor our children, not just while they are young and under our direct care in our house. But he wants us to be thinking how we can leave a legacy of godliness for them and the many generations after them. That legacy begins with the work we take up tomorrow and the life that we live right now.
And who knows, the Lord might bless our efforts. And when all the peoples of earth are gathered before him. And when all the clans of earth present themselves before God, there will be a great family reunion for you. Maybe you will not have left much, but perhaps what you did leave will have been significantly blessed of the Lord. And perhaps many of those children will come to you and thank you for fulfilling your calling in this regard.
"When the tempest passes, the wicked is no more, but the righteous edures forever."
Proverbs 10:25
A few years ago the Weather channel aired a series of shows entitled “It Could Happen Tomorrow.” As the title suggests, the series probes the “What if?”. One of the episodes ponders the question, “What if a severe hurricane hits NYC?” They said that it very well could happen. As a matter of fact, it did happen.
It was Wednesday September 21st, 1938 and it was just a normal day. At least it started out as just a normal day. But for the residents living on Long Island, the resort situated just off the coast of New York, it became a day of disaster.
Following a hurricane that veered off from the coast of Florida just days earlier, no one living on the sleepy island was dreaming this natural catastrophe would bear down upon them. Some locals noticed what looked like a fog bank approaching. Their mild interest turned into wild panic when they realized that this was no fog bank. It was a 30 foot wall of water, the hurricane’s storm surge.
At about 3:00 pm the Cat 3 storm made landfall. It brought with it winds speeding around 120 mph and tides ranging up to 25 feet. It ripped through Long Island and cut into the coastland, eating up much of Connecticut. When the storm reached Providence, Rhode Island approx. 2 hours later, it submerged the city in a watery abyss in a matter of minutes.
You can imagine the damage, especially with thoughts of Hurricane Katrina still vivid in our minds. But could it happen again? That’s the question the Weather channel sought to unravel.
This morning we are, in a sense, tuning in to the weather channel. We have before us a verse that, does more than forecast a storm. It predicts a storm. And for certain, we know that this is no natural storm. No, this is a supernatural storm. It is the storm of God’s terrible judgment.
As we consider this Storm, this morning, I want to do so in a Weather channel fashion. The newscasters seek to help you prepare for the storm by giving you as much information as possible. This is what I want to do. I want to help you prepare for the storm of God’s judgment. To do this we must examine with you the kind of storm that will come, the damage the storm will cause, and the preparation the storm requires. Notice first of all…
I. The kind of storm that will come
The Storm of God’s terrible judgment is described as a “tempest,” or a whirlwind. That indicates the power and the surprise of God’s judgment. A whirlwind’s two chief characteristics are that it comes on swiftly and intensely. In other words, this storm will come just like the hurricane that hit Long Island. It will completely shock and overwhelm those who are not prepared for it.
Do you remember how the great wind made the house collapse upon Job’s children. They were shocked by it, weren’t they? There they were in the house feasting and being merry. They did not know that the wind was coming. If they had they would have taken shelter. They would have sought a more secure habitation. But they had no way of knowing before hand. It swooped in upon them like a bird out of the sky. It came down and struck with great force. It made the walls break and the roof to cave in. All were lost in a matter of seconds.
This is how the Day of Christ will be. The Apostle Paul says that the Day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. When a thief comes, he comes when no one is suspecting him. He comes at night when everyone is sleeping.
Oh that is how God will come. He will come at a moment’s notice. And it will seem like he comes out of no where.
Do you remember what it was like on the day when the airplanes crashed into the Twin Towers? It was one of the most beautiful days, wasn’t it? I remember thinking to myself how I wish I didn’t have to be in class that day. But it became one of the most fearful days! Out of the blue two planes came thundering into those two buildings.
Or think about the tsunami that struck the coast of India a number of years ago. It was a beautiful day. People were out enjoying themselves at the beach—basking in the sun. Others were going about their regular day’s duties. Then the tempest hit. The waves came rolling in at over 600 miles per hour. Who had time to react to that?
That is what it will be like when the Lord unleashes his wrath. It will be a normal day. People will be eating and drinking and then the Lord will come upon them. Isn’t that what Jesus says? He says it will be just like in the days of Noah and Lot. People were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building, marrying and being given in marriage. It was a normal day! But then it started to rain. In Noah’s day the overwhelming waters of the flood came on so suddenly. Those people of Sodom and Gomorrah didn’t have a chance because the sky broke open and the Lord rained down fire and sulfur. They were all caught completely off guard.
So it will be on the day God chooses to strike. He will come like a whirlwind. When people are least suspecting it he will leap from his throne, rend the heavens, and descend to lay claim to his property.
You are now being told that this storm is coming, but there is no indication when it will come. Just like the Weather channel says, “It could happen tomorrow.” You must remember: This is not a storm that you can see brewing in the distance. It will come without a moment’s notice and it will come with great rage. It is a tempest.
The people on the Weather channel will try to help you prepare for the storm by describing the storm. They will tell you what kind of storm it is. But they will also try to predict what kind of damage a storm will do.
II. The damage the storm will cause
The silly thing about the weather channel is that the people don’t know what kind of damage will be done. They can only guess. They can only assume that trees will fall and power lines will be downed. But the Lord does not guess. He knows exactly what will happen, and he tells us outright in our passage. It says, “When the tempest passes, the wicked is no more.”
Such devastation! Whole ranks of humanity swept away in an instant!
You’ve seen the magic tricks, haven’t you? They magician takes a quarter and makes it disappear. Or the rabbit is put in the hat, and “poof” he’s gone! This is kind of like what is described here.
That is how God will treat the wicked man. It will seem like he vanishes from the face of the earth. God will be rid of him forever. He will throw the unworthy sinner into hell. God will not tolerate these rebels or allow them the opportunity to enjoy the freshness of the new heaven and the new earth.
I just spoke of the tsunami. Do you remember how it ravaged the land? There was absolutely nothing left when the waters subsided. Everything virtually disappeared, being destroyed, swept out to sea, or thrown somewhere else.
You might still be able to recall some of the footage from the news casts. They showed before and after pictures. Some of you may have even seen the pictures taken from satellites far above the earth’s atmosphere. From miles above the earth you could see that the green of trees was replaced by pure brown mud.
A while ago I spoke with a man who went down to help with the relief efforts after Hurricane Katrina. He showed me some pictures he took while he was there. But there was nothing in them! Everything had been swept away! And he told me that the pictures didn’t even tell half the story! He said it was eerie because everything was gone. It was almost like being in a wasteland because it was so desolate.
That is how it will be when Christ returns. Jesus is coming again. He is going to return, and the wicked will face his wrath.
In the gospel of Luke Jesus said that on the day he comes, “two people will be in one bed, one will be taken, the other will be left. Two will be grinding grain; one will be taken, the other left.” The wicked man will be swept away.
When God comes in his radiance, the wicked man will be no more. They shall not inherit the earth, but will be taken from it.
We must understand that God hates wicked people and he is ready to drive them out. His anger is built up like a damn and the levee is about to break. When it bursts the rage cannot be stopped. Ungodly men will be swept away.
As you can tell, this is a fierce storm. It will be unlike anything we have ever experienced. Hurricane Katrina will look like child’s play. The sheer magnitude of this storm will inflict so much damage. That is why we must prepare.
The Weather channel tries to help you prepare for the storm by telling you something about the kind of storm will come, the damage the storm will do, they will also say something about what you must do to prepare for the storm. They talk about the precautions that you ought to take.
III. The Preparation the Storm Requires
When you know a storm is coming, you prepare for it. You seek shelter. When the Tornado alarm sounds you head for the basement. When you see flashes of lightening or hear the rumble of thunder you head for cover.
The same should be true now that you have heard about his storm. But where do you find shelter from such a storm?
In the second half of the verse we find that the Lord points us to a place of refuge. My version says, “The righteous is established forever.”
Now I do not doubt that you have something different here than what I read. The verse is quite hard to translate. If we would translate it literally it would say, “The righteous an everlasting foundation.” Obviously that is a bit rough. Perhaps the best rendering we have is found in the old KJV. It says, “The righteous man is a foundation forever.”
It talks about a foundation. There is something with permanence. It is steadfast and cannot be shaken. What you need in a storm is a foundation that will not be uprooted.
You may have wondered as you watched the news casts, why is it that the only thing that ever survives a hurricane are all those palm trees? You would thing that those silly things would be uprooted and thrown around like toothpicks. But that doesn’t happen. That’s because a palm tree is well grounded. Unlike other trees it only has one root. That root grows straight down. So if you have a 20 foot tree, you have 20 feet of tree growing in the opposite direction. It is planted in the earth. It has established itself upon the foundation that will not be moved.
That is what the Lord is telling us we must do. He says there is a foundation that will endure the storm. If we are wise, w will establish ourselves upon it. Jesus said that the wise man builds his house upon the rock. When the storms come and the waters rise, it does not collapse. But where do we get this foundation?
I think that our verse says that the righteous man is the foundation. He is unmovable in the Day of Judgment.
Now you may say to yourself. Oh, well then, I should be OK. I am a pretty righteous person. I have been good most of my life, I certainly am not like so & so who has done such & such.
But that would be foolish of you to say. Your righteousness is not of a high caliber. Jesus said, “Unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.” In other words, unless you are perfect, you will be swept away in the flood. The Pharisees were the most righteous people in Jesus day. They would make any one of us look like criminals in comparison.
No, we cannot stand in our own righteousness. All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. And there is no one righteous, no not one. But there is a foundation that we can find refuge in!
Commentators tell us that the Rabbis’ saw this verse as a messianic proverb. It pointed to the Messiah, the Righteous One, who would keep his people safe in the midst of God’s storm. Indeed that is true.
The righteous man is not one of us. We are not righteous. But Jesus Christ was righteous. His whole live was dedicated to purity and righteousness. And he is the one who can shelter us in the day of the storm.
When the Angel of Death swept through Egypt he claimed every first born that did not have the blood of the lamb above the door posts. God did not discriminate between persons. He did not care who was a Jew and who was an Egyptian. They were all sinners. They all deserved to be struck down. Were it not for the blood of the righteous animal, then those within the house would have by no means escaped.
We must remember that that foundation is Christ. He is the righteous man. It is only by taking his name upon yourself that you will be able to face the fierce wrath of God.
Conclusion:
A young minister was once traveling through the rugged country near England's Cheddar Gorge. As he walked along the clouds burst and torrential sheets of rain pummeled the earth. The weary traveler was able to find shelter standing under a rocky overhang. There, protected from the buffeting wind and rain, Augustus Toplady conceived one of the most popular hymns ever written, "Rock of Ages, Cleft for me, Let me hide myself in Thee”
Toplady likened the storm he faced to that of the great and terrible storm of God’s Judgment. And he was right: There is only way that we may endure the terrible tempest. It is by taking shelter in the Rock of Ages, Jesus Christ.
"The wise of heart recieves commandments, but the prating fool will come to ruin."
Proverbs 10:8
World Magazine often has a page devoted to quirky things that happen in the world. Oftentimes they include some snippets from the world’s worst crooks. For instance, one of the latest issues reported how a drug dealer was tracked down. No great detectives were needed in this case. The police found his home quite easily. The dealer apparently thought he could better serve his clientele by passing out his business card. It is one of those things where you want to say, “How dumb can you get?”
Sometimes you wonder about people, don’t you? You catch yourself saying that, “how dumb can you get?” Perhaps you will catch yourself saying that about yourself at times!
When you study the book of Proverbs you may find yourself saying that on occasion. We may find ourselves aghast as we sit in our seats, and we will want to blurt out “How dumb can you get?” And if we are judging ourselves correctly we will be saying that about ourselves at times.
The book of proverbs is written to the “son.” He’s the youth growing up and coming into his own. And if there is one trait about young people it is that we are oftentimes dumber than we believe ourselves to be.
But things don’t change much as you get older, do they? John Hyatt, a preacher of Spurgeon’s day, was recorded to have said, “There is no point on which the world is more dark than that of its own ignorance.” As we grow older, we gain more knowledge. But does that knowledge lead us to think about how much we really do not know?
As we look at these proverbs—or look at any part of the Bible for that matter—we should be led to ask the question, “how dumb am I?”
Certainly, that may be the case this morning. In our verse we have two men presented before us. If you don’t mind, I would like to call them Dumb and Dumber. and I would like to consider each in that order. Our passage presents us with two men who you might say are mentally challenged. Both possess this quality of stupidity, but one is much worse off than the other.
Let us begin by considering the less sever case. This is the man who I call…
I. Dumb
As an astute Bible reader you will probably say “Wait a minute! It starts out by saying “‘The wise of heart receive commands.’ Matt, this is the wise man. The only dumb one here is you!”
Well, you may be right about that! But look at it again. If he is wise, why does he receive commands? He is called wise because he knows how much he doesn’t know!
The wise man here isn’t wise just because he has a degree or because he has built up a lot of knowledge over the years. He very well may have a Ph.d. (or he may not), that does not make a difference. He is called wise because of his humility! He knows that he does not know what he is supposed to know.
Your first step to becoming wise is getting a right understanding of yourself. And yet that can often be the hardest thing to do. I heard that there once was a tombstone with an epitaph that said: “Anthony Benezet was a poor creature, and through divine favor he was enabled to know it.” (we need that kind of grace, don’t we?)
Do you know what one of David’s favorite prayers was? It was “Teach me your way, O Lord.” We find it (or a form of it) in a number of places throughout the Psalms. It was the prayer of a humble man. That was a prayer of a man who knew he didn’t know what he needed to know, yet wanted to know it. That was a prayer of a humble man. This was David! He wrote most of the Psalter! Certainly he of all people had a grasp on what God taught, right?
We make fun of the disciples at times, don’t we? And rightfully so. They were a bunch of bumbling fools. It seems that the only time they do anything right is when they shut up. Perhaps their most glamorous moment is when they came to Jesus and said, “Lord, teach us to pray.”
We should take a lesson. Wisdom begins when we have a right view of ourselves. That’s part of the fear of God. When we see ourselves as creatures who are lesser than God and needing to draw from him. That’s when you are humble. When you are on your face before God you gain wisdom, because you realize you don’t know half of what you’re supposed to know.
But notice that the wise man isn’t wise simply because he is a humble man, he is wise because he is also an open man.
Look at him! He may be dumb, but “he receives commands.” This is the man who is ready to listen. More than that he is ready to accept what he hears.
You remember what Jesus said, “Whoever hears these words, and puts them into practice, he is like a man who built his house on the rock.” (Matt 7:24). There were most likely people who were listening to Jesus who didn’t accept what he said. They heard, but they didn’t listen. They didn’t receive what he said.
You find a lot of people in the church like that. They come to church, but they are as open as Fort Knox. There are those who are approached by brothers who want to gently correct them, but they will have none of it. If you approach them about their character traits, they snap! That’s not a wise man. That is not a man who is wise of heart. The wise man comes to church eager to learn. The wise man will listen to someone who rebukes him.
Professors in seminary said to us, “Fellas, you will have people who will critique your sermons. And you will have people who critique you. A lot of what they say will be garbage. But even if you think that what they say is way off the mark, you need to weigh what they say.” He was telling us to be receptive—to be open to what even the oddest or harshest people have to say.
And that takes us into the next thing you need to know about this man. This dumb man is a wise man because he is humble, because he is open, and because he is discerning.
The man receives what? He receives “commands.” This is nothing more than God’s Word. This is a man who is willing to listen, ponder what is said and then accept what it so long as it is true! He may be dumb, but he is no fool! He is not gullible. This man is searching for diamonds and will not accept anything less, no impostors will be permitted. Only if it is in accord with what God says will he receive it.
We here a lot today about “having an open mind.” This usually means we must accept what other people say wholesale--without any disagreement or critique. We are just supposed to take their words. But such a person is not wise. He is downright stupid. Who could be dumber?
I have been in conversations with people—talking to them about Christ and the gospel. And as I tell them about the exclusive claim of Christ—Either you follow him and have life or you come under his condemnation—they will say, “Well, you need to have an open mind.” By that they mean, “what you say may be true, but there might be other alternatives equally as true.”
In the 1920’s liberalism was beginning to take over the Presbyterian Church. Conservatives, in an attempt to save their denomination, passed a resolution that said that ministers in the church must affirm 5 fundamental tenets of the faith to be a minister—i.e. that Jesus was born of a virgin, his atoning death, and his bodily resurrection.
The liberals of the church had that overturned. They said that “these are only some ‘theories’ of the Christian faith.” In other words they were saying we should be “open minded.”
Yes we should be open. We should listen to what other people have to say. But what is false should never be received! We need to be discerning and only receive those things that are in accord with God’s Word.
In the book of Kings there was a prophet who was told to deliver a message to one of the kings of Israel. But he was also told that he was not to refresh himself in that land. He was to boycott any food or drink that anyone there might offer him. But after he delivered his message a man came along and tested the man. He claimed to be a prophet. He said that he received a message from God that he should eat and drink at his house. The prophet agreed to do so, but it was to his demise. He was mauled by a wild beast as soon as he left.
I guess you could say, he was a little too open-minded.
And there you see the last trait of this (so called) dumb man. A man who is dumb, but is wise enough to receive commands will be a safe man. Jesus said, He who hears these words is like a man who built his house upon the rock. The storms came, but it did not fall because it was founded upon the rock.
As I have said before: the man in the first half of the verse may be dumb, but he is no fool. However, the man in the second half of the verse is a fool. That is what makes him dumber.
II. Dumber
As we turn to contemplate this second specimen, let us look at his identity and his destiny.
The first thing we notice is his identity. He is described as a “prating fool.” That means one that talks foolishly. The idea comes from a child who just babbles. Words are strung together, but they do not have any meaning or coherence. If you have listened to small children speak you have heard them do this. They just say whatever comes to their head.
That’s what the prating fool is. He is one who is full of words, but empty of knowledge.
When fountain pens were popular you could sometimes find instructions that came with the pen that said, “When this pen flows too freely it is a sign that it is nearly empty.” That is the same sort of caution that we should use with humans. The mouth flows too freely, it can be a sign that one’s head is empty. Someone whose mouth is given to rambling is one who typically is lacking understanding. He’s a prating fool.
But let’s consider his identity a little more. Bible scholars link this prating fool to a man mentioned in 3 John. His name is Diotrephes. John says 2 things about this man: He identifies Diotrephes by saying that “he loves to be first” and that he “gossips maliciously” against the Apostles. Isn’t this an apt description of a “prating fool?” He is a fool—he doesn’t care about truth. He just wants to be first. He wants prominence and prestige. He wants to be admired. So what does he do? He makes himself out to be a scholar. He parades himself before others as a learned man. And he ends up leading other people astray.
In Romans 16 Paul talks about those who cause divisions and put obstacles in your way. He says they do their damage by their “smooth talk.” That is really what makes the false teacher so dangerous: He talks so much. He sounds so eloquent. He seems so religious.
You have to beware: This is Public enemy number 1 for the church. He (or she) might look and sound like a trustworthy person, but in all actuality he/she is a fountain of sewage. Those waters are contaminated, and anyone who drinks of is in serious trouble.
This is why John in his first epistle says, “Do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see if they are from God.” Don’t be mesmerized by their talk. Just because they talk a lot, doesn’t mean they know a lot.
Ø Now that you’ve seen something of this person’s identity, I want you to consider his destiny.
The passage says that the prating fool “will come to ruin.” You could translate it by saying, the fool will be “thrown down.” It’s sort of like a divine body slam.
If you ever watch the Discovery Channel or the History Channel you might see a documentary from time to time on an ancient civilization. They will show pictures of what is left of their city or what has been unearthed through excavation. You could tell that it was once an incredible place, but there is not much left of it now. We call those remnants “the ruins” of a city. You could say that this great city has been “thrown down.” It has been destroyed.
That is what will happen to the prating fool. He will be thrown down, ruined by God’s powerful hand.
Take for example the Sadducees. If you are familiar with the Bible you may have heard of these people before. They were some of the religious leaders of Jesus’ time. They were supposed to be the priestly class, but they were prating fools. They denied the existence of angels and demons. They did not believe in the resurrection. Most of all they opposed Jesus himself! As a result, they were thrown down.
Just a generation after Christ in 70 AD, there was a war. It is often called the Jewish War. In that war some of the leaders of the Sadducee sect were executed and the rest of that band seemed to vanish from the face of the earth. In one swipe of God’s hand they were gone.
There are many other examples of this that we could look at.
You may think of someone like Karl Marx, one who advocated a worldview greatly opposed to the Christian faith. It is said that:
Two of his daughters and a son-in-law committed suicide. Three of his children died of malnutrition. Marx feeling no obligation to earn a living, lived off of friends. He fathered an illegitimate child by his maidservant. He drank heavily. Though Marx and his wife were poor, he kept investing in the stock market where he constantly lost. His wife left him twice, but returned. After she died, he didn’t even bother attending her funeral. Then, to top it all off, his own death was preceded with mental anguish and despair.
You can also think of Fredrick Nietzsche. Nietzsche’s is known for his Nihilism and for coining the phrase “God is dead.” Nietzsche lived to be 56 years old. The last 12 years of his life quite unproductive because he suffered a mental collapse when he was 44. It is said that his insanity was so severe he could not even communicate.
Now I recognize that not all fools suffer that kind of ruin in life. This is certainly true, at least to some degree. But I want you to recognize that their lives do end. They may have escaped catastrophe in this life, but in the end they will fall. It will be just as Jesus says, “Whoever builds his house on the sand will fall with a great crash.” And elsewhere Jesus says, “whoever causes one of these little ones to sin, it would be better for him if a millstone was tied around his neck and he was thrown into the sea.”
He will be ruined. He will face death. And after death, he will be thrown into hell. That is his destiny.
Conclusion:
If we might borrow from the great theologian Forest Gump “Stupid is as stupid does.” A fool will do foolish things and face a fool’s future. But a man who knows how foolish he is will be wise because he will seek the Lord’s counsel.
In the end, the question becomes: Which person describes you? Perhaps a better question would be, “How dumb are you?” Are you foolish enough to be a wise man—one who receives the teaching of the Bible? Or are you so dumb that you ignore the Word of God and bumble through life?
I pray that it is the former. However, if the latter would characterize your life up until now, I hope that you will wise up by submitting yourself to the Lord and his word.
“Whoever loves discipline loves knowledge, but he who hates reproof is stupid.”
Proverbs 12:1
Some time ago I heard an interesting study that had been done which had to do with your brain’s health. Those who did the study had found that if you don’t exercise your brain, you will be more likely to develop brain problems later in life.
The study said that the brain is a lot like any other muscle or organ in your body. If it isn’t used much, then it will begin to deteriorate. It’s just like your biceps or any of the muscles in your legs. If you don’t do a lot of walking or lifting, then the muscles in your legs or arms will begin to go through atrophy. They will begin to waste away.
But you see those guys in the weight room pumping iron. What happens to them? The more they exercise, the stronger their muscles become.
That’s what this study has reported about your brain. If your mind isn’t being exercised, then—like any other organ or muscle—it will begin to degenerate. So, later in life, people who haven’t used their brains much, are more likely to develop things like dementia or Alstimers. But, on the other hand, those who have tried to apply themselves in some sort of regular study—some brain workouts, you might say—these people’s brains are stronger. They are more likely to stay off these problems and live longer healthier lives.
Now you know how I love it when science points out things that are very pertinent to the Christian life. And this study is one such example.
As Christians, we are to be “a studying people.” We are people who are to be known as “a people of ‘The Book.’” Because when Christ calls us, he calls us to be his disciples. And a disciple is nothing more than a student. We are to be students of Christ’s teaching—students of His Word—constantly growing in “what we are to believe about God and what He requires of us.”
Now our proverb for this morning touches on just this very thing. It talks about how we are to be diligent disciples. Here we see that God calls us to exercise our minds by being lovers of instruction. Yes, we must love instruction! We must savor it and seek after it. It doesn’t matter if it’s hard or if it’s harsh, we are to love instruction.
Now, I know that most all of you have forgotten about your New Year’s resolutions by now. You made them, you broke them, and by now you have completely forgotten about them. It has been so long you probably don’t even feel guilty about having broken it anymore too!
But why is it that we break our New Year’s resolutions? I would assume that it is because it is hard. We don’t keep up with it because it takes discipline.
This is exactly why we often forsake the Scripture too. But this passage makes it clear that we are to love instruction, even though it may be hard (hard to do).
I. A true disciple of Christ loves discipline, even if it may be hard.
The passage begins by saying, “Whoever loves discipline, loves knowledge.” If you have a different version, it might say something slightly different, but the meaning is the same. It might say “Whoever loves instruction, loves knowledge.” When you think about instruction, what do you think of? I hope you think about discipline.
Probably the thing you think of when you think of “instruction” is sitting in a classroom. There is a teacher and students listening to the teacher’s instruction. Now that takes a lot of discipline, doesn’t it? It takes a lot of discipline to sit and to concentrate and be instructed.
But a disciple of Christ is someone who wants knowledge. He wants to learn more about Christ, about God, about the Bible. That means he loves to be instructed. That means he loves the process of discipleship, even though that might suck up some brain power.
Now think about this. Think about how foreign this is to us fun-loving Americans. We, for the most part, don’t like discipleship. Let’s admit it. It’s hard. We don’t like things that are hard—we don’t like things that take discipline. We like things like the drive through at McDonalds—it’s fast and it’s easy. Cooking our own meals takes discipline. It is a whole lot easier to pull up to the window at McDonalds and say, “Give me a burger!”
That’s why our form of worship is not that popular today. It is hard. It isn’t very “fun.” And a lot of people will come and go because our style of worship revolves around loving instruction. Most people don’t want that for worship though. They rather have someone performing for them.
And it is no different when it comes to our personal or family devotional time. Let’s face it, we like to be lazy. We rather flip on the television and have the bobbing head in the box entertain us for a while.
Just this week I read an article from the AP about America’s TV watching habits. This article—you might have seen it in the TG a week ago or so—started off by saying, “Americans spend more time watching TV, listening to the radio, surfing the internet and reading newspapers than anything else except breathing.” The only thing we do more than breathe is spending our time in various forms of media.
The article went on to say that the average American watches almost 5 hours of TV a day. And that number is only projected to increase as the Baby boomer generation—the largest portion of America’s population—begins to retire.
I think we are going to be seeing a lot of minds beginning to deteriorate in the upcoming years. (There’s a reason why they call it “the idiot box,” you know).
As Christians we have to watch how much TV we are watching. And some of our daily time is to be spent in the study of—not just the reading of—God’s word.
I listened to one of Ligonier’s Tape of the Month messages this past week. The message was by Sinclair Ferguson. Ferguson told the story about a parishioner of his who came to him once and said how much they loved the book of Ephesians. They had just finished reading the book of Ephesians and they were raving about how good it was. Ferguson rejoiced with them, and then said, “Well, have you taken the Ephesians test?” The person looked at him and said, “What’s the Ephesians test?” Ferguson, making up on the spot, said, “The Ephesians test goes like this: Can you give an outline of the book? Or can you recite some of the verses from memory? If someone came up to you and asked about the book of Ephesians, could you tell them something about its form and content?”
You can see that’s a pretty good test. And, as Ferguson says, it can have 65 other names! But passing that test will only come if you’ve disciplined yourself.
We are to love discipline—we are to love instruction. The Word of God is to change, not only our actions and beliefs, but it is to change our affections too. When it comes to discipleship, we are to love it. As Apostle Peter says, “As newborn babes, crave pure spiritual milk.”
I’ve been told that a newborn baby will actually seek out his/her mother’s milk. I’ve been told that, if you place a newborn on your stomach, the child—never having been taught this—will begin to nudge its way up. It is a natural instinct that God has given newborns, to seek out their nourishment.
That is what Peter says we are as Christians are to be like. We are to crave instruction. We are to love it so much that we yearn for it.
I hope that, if you do not do so already, you will be motivated to turn off the TV for a while and say, “I’m going to spend some time really digging through the book of ___.” Or perhaps take up the challenge of discipline and say, “I’m going to try and memorize this psalm or this passage of ___.”
Make an attempt to exercise your brain. If you do, I can guarantee this: you will find that it’s not just your mind that becomes stronger; your soul will be strengthened too.
As a disciple of Jesus Christ, our Heavenly Father calls us to love discipline. We are to love instruction. But we are to love it not only when it is hard; we are to love it when it is harsh too. That is to say, we are to love it when it is hard to take.
II. A true disciple loves discipline, even if it is hard to take.
Look at the second part of our verse. It says, “He who hates reproof is stupid.”
What you have here is a specific form of instruction: that of reproof. What is a reproof? It is a correction, isn’t it? It is someone coming to you and letting you have it because you are in the wrong.
This reminds us that discipline (or teaching) is not always palatable, is it? Sometimes it stings.
Have any of you young people had the board of education applied to the seat of knowledge? How did you like that? That probably wasn’t easy to take, was it? That hurts! But that is a form of instruction. That’s a reproof, and we are to love that.
Now, most of us don’t get spanked…at least not physically. We do get reproved though. We can get verbal spankings. When someone comes up to us and corrects us that is instruction. When they pull us aside, or when a minister reproves us on the basis of Scripture that is instruction. And sometimes that can be something we don’t want to hear.
But we are to love instruction, even when it is harsh.
I really like the way the older versions put the second part of this verse. The KJV says, “He who hateth reproof is brutish.” Brutish, I like that. It is kind of like calling someone a beast. “If you hate being corrected, you are not human. You are sub-human. You are like a stupid donkey.”
Some of you might know the story in the Book of Acts about Paul’s conversion. He was on his way to Damascus where he was going to persecute a bunch of Christians. But the Lord confronted him there. Do you know what the Lord said to Paul when he confronted him? He said, “Saul, Saul, why do you kick against the goads?”
In other words, “Saul, why are you acting like a donkey?” A goad was a stick that someone used to get their donkey going. Donkey’s are known to be stubborn things, and sometimes they won’t go when you say, “Giddy-up.” So you would use this sharp stick to prick them in the behind to get them going.
Paul was acting like that donkey who wouldn’t listen to his master. No doubt he had heard about Christ. He was a Pharisee and he knew the Scriptures forwards and backwards. These Christians were telling him that the Messiah had come. But he wouldn’t accept it. He bucked against it as hard as he could. He was as stubborn as a donkey.
That’s really how everyone is who hears the gospel, but won’t accept it. They are like a stupid animal. They won’t accept the fact that they are sinners and there is one who is Lord over them.
Really that’s what Romans 1 tells us about the unbeliever. In Romans 1 it says that the unbeliever’s thinking has become futile and their hearts are darkened. In other words they are beasty—beast-like people. Since the beginning of the world God has revealed through his creation that he exists. But the sinner suppresses the truth. Psalm 19 says “The heavens declare the glory of God.” They are not whispering. They declare—they are shouting: God is our maker!” But an unbeliever will not receive that correction. They won’t seek him out. How foolish.
But it is even more foolish when someone won’t listen to the Lord’s special revelation! Not the correction that comes through creation, but the correction that comes through the Bible.
You know, I heard one preacher tell a story about an experience he had on his grandfather’s farm. On that farm there was a cow that had been injured. Somehow it had gotten a sharp sliver stuck in its leg. The stick was protruding from the animal and the wound was bleeding and had become infected. The vet had been called in order to help restore the beast. But the animal wouldn’t let the vet come near him. Every time the doctor approached the stupid little bovine, it would lash about & try to escape. The very hand that was there to heal, was rejected.
But, you know what, that’s how a lot of people act. When a preacher or a friend comes with a word of correction—no matter how gently and lovingly they come, the person just will not listen. They rather continue in their sin than submit to God.
Speaking of animals…I am told that in parts of Alaska that there are wolves that will kill themselves. I am told that a person can take a knife and dip it in blood, and let the blood freeze on the knife. Then that person will place the handle of the knife in the ground—with the sharp side sticking up. Then they will wait. At some point a wolf will be attracted by the scent of the blood. That stupid animal will then begin licking the blood-cicle. As he does so he will pierce his tongue and begin to bleed. Tasting the fresh blood the animal will continue licking all the more—until at last he bleeds to death.
What a stupid animal. He has to be experiencing a lot of pain, but he won’t heed the correction.
Yet it is a picture of some people who won’t listen to God’s word. They will continue in their sin, despite the reproofs they hear. Even the painful consequences of their sin won’t be enough to stop them. They will act like a stupid animal, and they will end up piercing themselves through. They would rather harm themselves than listen to God’s healing correction.
I want to ask you: How do you react to reproof? When someone wants to get something straight with you, how do you react? Do you go on the offensive? Do you automatically put up your defenses and want to fight back?
Or do your eyes glaze over? Or do you listen politely but as soon as they are gone you roll your eyes and say, “What’s with them?”
How do you react? I know that people might not come at you carefully or in the most loving way. How do you react when they come though? I am probably the chief of sinners when it comes to not correcting someone gently. I am terrible at it. But even if someone corrects you in a way you don’t think is right, doesn’t give you an excuse to refuse their correction.
I remember a time where I was corrected—it was more of a searing scold! I was not expecting it in the slightest. I was sitting with a guy I did not know and we were keeping score of an intramural basketball game. It was a really good game and I was really getting into it. I was actually trying to act like a sports announcer. I don’t remember all that I said, but after the game, the guy next to me just hauled off on me. He chewed into me with a vengeance. I don’t remember everything he said, but basically he said that I was the most arrogant, obnoxious person he had ever met.
I just looked at him in disbelief. I was ready to tear into him. What gave him the right to say that, and why in the world was he saying it? I had just met the guy an hour ago!
But you know what? Looking back, I can see how I could have been obnoxious. I could see how I might have come off as arrogant. I didn’t mean to. I wasn’t trying to act like a jerk. But there was a grain of truth to his words. It might not have been to the degree that he made it. And he certainly could have gone about it in a much nicer way. Nevertheless, there was some truth to his words.
The point is, there was a correction. I could have blown him off (I could have punched him in the nose!)—I could have acted in a brutish/stupid manner. Or I could say, “You know, your right. I’m sorry. I’ll try and do better.”
We have to love instruction—even when it is hard to take.
Conclusion:
In the end, the question comes down to this: “Are you going to sit at Jesus’ feet?”
Remember Mary and Martha. Jesus came to their house and these two ladies had different reactions. Martha took to the kitchen, and Mary took to the feet of our Lord. She wanted instruction! And Jesus commended her, “She has chosen the wiser.”
Are you going to sit at Jesus’ feet? When Jesus speaks (be it by means of a friend or by the preacher), are you going to listen to him? Are you going to love that instruction?
Better yet, rather than waiting for him to come to you, are you going to seek him out? Are you going to love instruction? Are you going to discipline yourself so that you receive that instruction? If you are, that means things may have to change in your life. Your whole schedule will have to be rearranged. All the other events of your day are going to be scheduled around your time with the Lord, in his word.
Your Saturday may have to look a little different too. Young people, you may have to buckle down and get your homework done on Saturday. That way, you don’t have to be doing it on Sunday. Then with your Sunday open you can come to worship. And with your Sunday free from any other obstructions, you can focus on the Lord all day long. You have a whole day set aside for instruction—and that takes discipline!
It’s hard setting aside fun things, I know. We love those things, don’t we? But these things can distract us from our first love, Jesus Christ. And they can distract us from being the disciples he has called us to be.
May God grant us a heart that he has called for here. May he fill us with the heart of the Psalmist who cried out, “Oh how I love your law!”
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