A Wise Heart - Proverbs 2
Matters of the Heart: Proverbs 4:20-23 • Sermon • Submitted
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Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
<<PRAY>>
23 Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.
ILLUST:
NOTE - from “Treasuring Wisdom” - Prov 4
The heart as the treasure chest; wisdom = seeing God’s world in God’s way - trusting His truth & fearing Him as LORD - puts everything else in its proper perspective
Wisdom a treasure beyond compare because:
Wisdom is a treasury of God’s grace
“Get wisdom” - go to the source (James 1:5)
“Love wisdom” - love cultivated by seeing her worth - better than silver or gold, holds long life & riches in her hands and makes sense of them
Wisdom is a treasury of God’s guidance -
Sure-footed path,
Contrasts the two paths/ways - wisdom or folly, wisdom or wickedness
Way of wisdom is the way of security, and life and light (cf. Prov 4:18)
THERE, we asked “What makes wisdom a treasure beyond compare?”
TODAY:
Q. How does God use wisdom to guard our hearts?
Org: 4 points
I. A wise heart is protected by God (vv1-8)
I. A wise heart is protected by God (vv1-8)
Structure - draw line after v5, after v11, after v15, after v19.
1-11 tells us why we should seek wisdom, verses 12-19 tell us how wisdom will deliver us from evil, and verses 20-22 are a sort of summary of the whole thing.
Look at vv1-4 - IF <<READ 1-4>>; vv5-11 - THEN - <<READ 5-6, 9-10>>
The search for wisdom is founded on its tremendous value, as we’ve said before. The search starts in verse 1 with receiving wise words, then inclining your heart to understanding, leaning in so you don’t miss it,
Then in verse 3 calling out and raising your voice, and in verse 4 setting out on a quest for wisdom. There’s a progression from passive to active.
And the results are in verses 5-11. But a minute ago, I skipped a couple of verses. <<READ 7-8>> And here’s verse 11 <<READ 11>>
A wise heart is protected by God, and He does the protection through the wisdom He gives.
He gives wisdom, He stores it up for the upright, He is a shield, he is guarding and watching.
And discretion watches over you, and understanding will guard you, and that’s how He will deliver you from the things we see in verses 12-19.
How?
Look again at verse 5 - knowledge of God is the starting point. Relational knowledge, the kind of knowledge that can only come from knowing HIM, not just knowing facts.
We find out in Jeremiah 31 that knowing God is another way of talking about being saved, being in His New Covenant.
Knowing Him is the starting point for seeing His world the way He does, "The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge.”
As Jesus says (emphasize KNOW)
11 I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. 12 He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. 13 He flees because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep. 14 I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, 15 just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep.
Jesus also says that He leads his sheep, they recognize His voice, and He gives them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one can snatch them out of his hand.
In other words, Jesus directly protects those who know Him. He is their shield.
But He also promises to protect us through the wisdom that he gives.
II. A wise heart is prepared for Godliness (vv9-11)
II. A wise heart is prepared for Godliness (vv9-11)
If you look carefully at verses 1-11, you’ll notice that Solomon uses quite a few related terms - understanding, insight, knowledge, wisdom, discretion.
“hidden treasures” // “he stores up” // “knowledge will be pleasant”
Verses 9-11 are similar to verses 5-8 -
Verses 5 and 9 start the same way: THEN you will UNDERSTAND
Verses 6 and 10 too - for the Lord gives wisdom in verse 6, for wisdom will come into your heart in verse 10.
And notice that it says the LORD is guarding and watching in verse 8, but in verse 11, watching and guarding are what discretion and understanding do for us.
God protects us by walking with us, training us, preparing us for the paths we will walk.
Notice all the words related to wisdom in these verses. Understanding, insight, knowledge, discretion.
Together, these words paint a full picture of living in God’s world the way He intends - knowing how to do something; knowing when to do something; knowing how to decide what to do.
But a wise heart isn’t just prepared to make sensible decisions - a wise heart is prepared for GODLINESS.
Verse 8 - guarding what - the paths of justice. Verse 9 - then you will understand what - righteousness and justice and equity, every good path.
How? Verse 10 - <<READ 10>>
— Knowledge of God - which comes from God’s own mouth.
This is the Old Testament version of (NOTE wise/mouth/breathed
15 and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. 16 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.
Every good path.
APPLY:
When we see God’s world the way he does, we also begin to see justice, righteousness, equity, integrity the way He does.
ILLUST: A high school student walks into class / finds seat /
And we see how God prepares us when we look at the two perilous paths of verses 12-19.
III. A wise heart is rescued from deadly tracks (vv12-19)
III. A wise heart is rescued from deadly tracks (vv12-19)
Verses 12-19 are two parallel pictures of what God’s wisdom delivers us from. vv12-15 - focus on one kind of evil man // vv16-19 - focus on one kind of evil woman.
12//16 - “delivering you from” -
Men of perverted speech // the adulteress with her smooth words
13//17 - “who forsake the paths of uprightness to walk in the ways of darkness” // “who forsakes the companion of her youth and forgets the covenant of her God”
Of course, these are not the only kind of evil people that God’s wisdom will deliver us from; but they are two of the most dangerous. Both of these are apostates looking to drag others down to hell with them. They aren’t people who have never heard about the Lord - they have forsaken God’s way and God’s covenant, and they want to deceive you with perverse or smooth words.
Perverted speech is any speech that calls evil good, or calls good evil. Smooth words sound pleasant. They make it easier to give in to temptation.
One will use words to try to twist your mind, the other will use words to ensnare it.
In our 1 John series, we saw something similar. John was writing to give confidence and assurance to the believers to cling to Jesus Christ without letting go, because false teachers had abandoned Jesus Christ, His Word, and His people, and they were claiming to still have fellowship with God.
Remember what John said in chapter 1
5 This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. 6 If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. 7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. 8 If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.
So how is a wise heart rescued from the deceptive words of evil men and women? Through the pure words that come from God’s mouth. John says, “This is the message we have heard from him.” The discretion that watches over us, the understanding that guards us, from His mouth, exposes the lie for what it is. It shines a light on the faithlessness of those who would flatter us into abandoning God for them.
APPLY:
We can see this when someone who calls themselves a Christian calls something evil that God has called good, or vice versa.
Perverse speech by a forsaker wants you to start thinking that if something seems pleasing, it must be good. Or when someone who says they used to be a Christian tries to convince you to walk away from the Faith with them. Some people try to evoke sympathy for their situation as a way to get you to walk away from God’s Word. Others try to make you feel shame for violating a twisted idea of justice or a perverse version of goodness.
Smooth words by a forsaker wants you to start thinking how nice it would be to join them in their sin. It’s a spoonful of sugar to make the poison go down. Not just the adulteress, by the way. This is the serpentine soliloquy that says, “Everyone does it. No one will find out. It’s just this once.”
We can recognize this defection from uprightness in every seductive strain that tries to get you to cheat on your taxes, on your exams, on your spouse.
But a wise heart is rescued from deceptive words and deadly tracks.
Verses 14-15 are closely parallel with verses 18-19. The word paths in verse 15 and verse 18 is an unusual word that has the meaning of a dirt track with deep ruts.
Imagine a caravan of men on a wagon headed steeply downhill - her house sinks down to death - and they are rejoicing in the evil they’re planning.
They’re rolling downhill in the dark, singing all the way to the grave.
ILLUST: They keep the tracks crooked so they can’t see what awaits them. <<BOBSLED/LUGE>> Like a bobsled run with nothing to stop you at the bottom.
How will the wise heart be rescued from deadly tracks?
If you see God’s world the way God does, then you can see evil for what it is. Knowledge of God is what enables us to know justice, righteousness, insight, discretion.
But do we?
You might be thinking right now - My own brain tells me how nice it would be to join others in sin. Every day, I’m beset with temptation to go along with those who rejoice in evil and want me to join them.
And when I fall, it’s because I believed the lies.
But there is a glorious, precious truth buried in this chapter that answers all our fears and doubts.
IV. A wise heart is guarded by a wiser one (vv4-8, 20-22)
IV. A wise heart is guarded by a wiser one (vv4-8, 20-22)
When you know you’ve jumped on the bobsled, here’s what I want you to remember:
<<READ vv4-8, emphasize “treasure” and “he stores up”>>
We’ve been saying throughout this series that the heart is our internal treasure chest. What we find out here is that the LORD has opened up his treasure chest for all his saints. Every one who is walking with Him.
It is his desire to teach us wisdom. And it is He who delivers us by wisdom.
Do you think He is your shield only until you mess up? Brothers and sisters, if you’ve ever walked in true, Godly integrity, it’s only ever been by His grace through the work of the Holy Spirit.
This entire chapter overflows with the sense that the LORD will watch over you.
<<READ 20-22>>
Notice that he doesn’t say, “So, you ought to walk...” He says, “So, you WILL walk.” Why? BECAUSE of the deliverance promised in verses 12-19.
This is a promise for all who belong to Jesus Christ - He will lose none of those given to Him by His Father. He will raise every single one of them at the last day. Because a wiser heart is watching over your heart.
When we look at this chapter in the context of the rest of Scripture, it becomes pretty clear: Apart from Jesus, everyone is on that bobsled on the way down to the house of death in one way or another.
It’s our natural bent to be crooked. To rejoice in doing evil. To forget God. Verse 22 is the final sentence for everyone who lives without the knowledge of God in Jesus Christ - to be cut off from the land - to be judged at death and found guilty.
But verse 21 is an Old Testament proclamation of eternal life. <<READ 21>>
If you look at this and say, “How can I possibly keep to the paths of the righteous or be upright in God’s sight?” then you’ve asked the right first question on the path towards wisdom and life.
See, when Jesus called Himself the “good shepherd,” he was also implying something about us.
4 Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. 5 But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. 6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
It’s no compliment to be called a sheep. But it is accurate.
Friends, we all like sheep have gone astray. Nobody can regain the paths of life by their own wisdom.
But in Colossians 2, Paul prays for his readers:
2 that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God’s mystery, which is Christ, 3 in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
The hidden treasure of wisdom - knowing the LORD and being guarded and kept so that you will walk in the way of the good and keep to the paths of the righteous and remain for eternal life
God has given as a gift what we could never earn.
For silly sheep that we are, He became our passover lamb and our good Shepherd. Crooked, devious, death-bound sinners that we were, Jesus remained upright. He kept the paths of justice perfectly;
He lived a blameless life in our place.
He died on the cross as our substitute, bearing in His body the punishment we deserved, so that our sins could be forgiven. And He rose bodily on the third day, conquering death so that we could be justified before God and receive the same resurrection life that He has.
And the Bible says that no matter how far you’ve gone, no matter how far down the deadly tracks you’ve been, even if you’ve been the one driving the cart // Even if you’ve been the one seducing others with your smooth words, Jesus says that His body was broken and His blood was poured out for the forgiveness of sins.
7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, 8 which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight
And if you hear Him call to you, don’t wait another moment to turn to Him and receive salvation from Him. In the moment you put your trust in Jesus, you will no longer be on the paths of the wicked and treacherous. His perfect uprightness and righteousness will be counted as yours, because you will be his.
And something else, something wonderful will happen. He will begin showing you just how GOOD He is. <<READ vv9-10>>.
The worst trick of the deadly tracks is that when you’re in the ruts, you think they’re great fun. As verse 14 says, at our worst we delight in the perverseness of evil. But when God’s Holy Spirit brings your spirit back to new life and you put your faith in Christ, He will begin teaching you how pleasant knowledge of God is. The false pleasure of evil cannot compete with the joy of the LORD. And as you walk in Christ’s integrity, He will prove it to you.